Public Prosecutor's Office accuses 9 defendants of a network that robbed jewelry stores

The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) has filed charges against nine defendants suspected of criminal association aimed at robbing jewelry stores in Alto Minho, for theft, qualified robbery, document forgery and possession of a prohibited weapon.

In a press release made available on the website of the Porto District Prosecutor's Office, the MP associates the accused defendants, who are in preventive detention, with an attempted robbery in Vila Verde in February 2024 and the robbery of a jewelry store in Valença in November of that year, carried out when they were already under investigation.

For the MP, there is evidence that, “since before February 2024, four of the defendants (one of whom held leadership roles) residing in the Galicia area, created an organization intended to commit crimes against property and people, targeting, among other things, the robbery of jewelry stores, with a particular focus on the Alto Minho region”.

“Under the command of the group leader,” the defendants recruited “the remaining defendants, of other nationalities and residing in other countries, to operate in the robberies,” the MP describes.

In exchange for rewards, the defendants “implemented a physical structure for the execution of the crimes – renting premises for the defendants to install themselves” and “renting successive vehicles in which they were transported”.

In addition, they acquired “a wide range of goods and instruments for carrying out crimes (such as firearms, hats, gloves)” and organized “raids on targets”.

According to the MP, in the early hours of February 19, 2024, “the group's operational defendants, traveling in a vehicle using license plates from another vehicle they had previously stolen, went to a jewelry store in Vila Verde, after it had closed.”

They had “the intention of taking possession of the goods and valuables, but were unable to do so due to the resistance offered by the security/locking systems of the place”.

On November 14, 2024 , at 6:15 pm, “at the wheel of a motor vehicle using false license plates (which they had previously stolen), they went to a jewelry store located in the shopping center, in Valença, still open to the public”.

"Wielding a compressed air gun, they entered the jewelry store, approached the owners, and forced them, at gunpoint, to go to the safe area," he adds. One of the owners "resisted," and one of the defendants punched him twice in the face, "causing him to fall to the ground and continuing the physical assault."

“At the same time, while two other defendants remained on guard, a third person burst into the jewelry store, armed with a firearm and a screwdriver, and began to break the store's display cases where numerous gold items (worth 400,000 euros) were on display,” he said.

At that moment, "they were surprised by the presence of authorities, which prevented them from taking the aforementioned assets and valuables from the victims." The leader " had in his possession the sum of 118,830 euros , generated and used by the organization, and the Public Prosecutor's Office requested the forfeiture of this amount in favor of the State."

Thus, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Viana do Castelo filed charges "against nine defendants, accusing them of having committed, as co-authors, one crime of criminal association, two crimes of theft, one crime of attempted qualified theft; one crime of attempted qualified robbery; two crimes of aggravated forgery or counterfeiting of documents and one crime of possession of a prohibited weapon."