The investigation into the “Safra Justa” operation, which led to the arrest of 17 suspects, including ten soldiers from the National Republican Guard (GNR) and an agent from the Public Security Police (PSP), began with information from two victims, DN knows.
Despite being coerced by law enforcement agents in the region, these two immigrants, even under threats, had the courage to speak to the Judiciary Police (PJ) to ask for help and tell them how the criminal scheme worked, a source linked to the investigation told the newspaper.
The PJ offered protection measures to the immigrants, which happened in 2023. Now, the two migrants are safe, legalized and working.
As the PJ already had some prior information, from other previous investigations, about the suspects and their modus operandi, the information from these two victims ended up putting together some missing pieces. It took another two years of investigations and due diligence by the PJ until the execution of 50 search warrants and 17 arrest warrants in Beja, Portalegre, Figueira da Foz and Porto.
Ten of the 17 detained on suspicion of exploiting immigrants were released after being interviewed on Thursday, at Campus Justiça, in Lisbon. The DN knows that the Public Ministry (MP) wants preventive detention for the other seven detainees: a GNR sergeant, the PSP agent and five civilians who belonged to an alleged network of trafficking, exploitation and coercion of migrants, including two foreigners.
These, of Indonesian nationality, were responsible for recruiting, with false promises of employment, this workforce in their geographical region.
According to DCIAP, the suspects “they took advantage of the fragile situation (documentary, social and economic) of citizens from third countries, the vast majority of whom were undocumented, to derive considerable economic advantages”.
Beja Court condemns this crime little
Although this operation was carried out by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), assisted by the National Counterterrorism Unit (UNCT) of the PJ, if it comes to trial, the Beja Court will be the stage.
It was in this Court where, at the beginning of this year, 18 people and the two companies were acquitted who were being tried for criminal association, human trafficking and money laundering, in a process that involved the alleged exploitation of immigrants.
This was the result of a mega operation, in 2022, in which the PJ carried out 65 search warrants and detained 35 people, suspected of being part of “a criminal structure dedicated to exploiting the work of immigrant citizens, the majority of whom were enticed in their countries of origin, such as Romania, Moldova, India, Senegal, Pakistan, Morocco, Algeria, among others, to come and work on agricultural holdings in that region of our country”.
At the time it was reported that employers took wages from victims and workers were subjected to heavy work with little rest and threatened with physical violence. Families in the country of origin were also threatened.
The presiding judge of the collective indicated that the facts that the defendants had been sentenced to a criminal level had not been proven.
According to the court, what was proven at trial was the violation of labor rules by the defendants, such as the fact that they did not pay the previously agreed amounts as salaries to immigrant workers.
However, the judge noted, “the rest has not been proven”, that is, that the defendants recruited, deceived or mistreated workers.
In the same Court, in 2023, soldier Nuno Andrade was sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year and three months in prisonfor three crimes of harm to physical integrity against immigrants in Odemira. However, the Évora Relation acquitted the agent of authority.
Guard Rúben Candeias had also been sentenced to six years in prison, but saw his sentence reduced to four years and eight months, in addition to being able to return to work in the GNR.
The case, which began trial on November 30, 2022, involved four cases of kidnapping and aggression of immigrants by GNR soldiers, then stationed at the Vila Nova de Milfontes Territorial Postin Odemira, which occurred between September 2018 and March 2019.
At the moment, the trial is in Beja Mirror operationannounced in November 2023 in Alentejo. The MP asked for the conviction of only eight defendantsfor crimes of criminal association, human trafficking and aiding illegal immigration. In total they are 20 defendants, including 13 people and seven companies.