The Judicial Police (PJ) detained a 51-year-old man in the Lisbon area, wanted by the Mozambican judicial authorities on suspicion of crimes of criminal association, money laundering, document forgery and breach of trust.
“As a director of a company, between 2019 and 2023, [o homem] ordered the transfer to Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates, China, Japan and Portugal of around 140 million US dollars, supposedly for the import of goods that were never actually cleared through customs in Mozambican national territory,” the PJ said this Thursday, December 4, in a statement.
The foreign citizen was wanted by Mozambican authorities for alleged involvement in highly organized crime, according to the police.
According to the PJ, the man, with the help of customs brokers, falsified goods customs clearance documents and sent them to commercial banks to justify the transfers made abroad.
“A significant part of this amount came from transfers and cash deposits by family members of the detainee and those who collaborated with him, arrested for involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering”, also indicates the PJ.
According to the PJ, the companies were created for criminal purposes, mainly to hide and disguise the origin of income from drug trafficking.
The detainee, who could be sentenced to a sentence of 16 years in prison, will be brought before the Lisbon Court of Appeal, for the application of a coercive measure.