From Indonesia to the United Kingdom. Who are some of the Portuguese detained outside?

Diogo Santos Coelho is 24 years old and risks spending another 57 years in American prison. Detained in the United Kingdom, extradition to the United States is not assured, but it is a scenario that seems increasingly likely.

Last week, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Security, Tom Tugendhat, did not want to listen to the arguments presented by the Portuguese hacker’s defense and chose to follow up on the extradition request issued by the United States. In February, a judge ordered the young man’s transfer to Portugal, after consulting the request made by Diogo’s lawyers. But as there was a request from the United States, the English Public Prosecutor’s Office decided that the case should be sent to the minister, who has the authority to make the final decision. Tom Tugendhat did not want to hear the defense’s arguments and decided in favor of the United States’ request, where the hacker is accused of several crimes of conspiracy, device access fraud and aggravated identity theft. The defense has three months to appeal.

Diogo Santos Coelho was arrested in the United Kingdom in 2022. He is suspected of having created a platform called RaidForums, used to transact large amounts of stolen data online, from credit card numbers to bank account access passwords. Payments made in exchange for this data were made in cryptocurrencies. According to the FBI, it was the largest market and virtual meeting point for several hackers, with half a million users.

According to CNN Portugal, one of Diogo Santos Coelho’s victims was T-Mobile, a North American giant in the telecommunications sector. Data from 50 million users was stolen and published on RaidForums. To try to reverse the theft, the company paid 252 thousand euros in bitcoin.

In the past, British justice had already accepted an extradition request from the United States, but the defense appealed, claiming that, being autistic, Diogo Santos Coelho could face a risk to his life in an American prison.

Detained at Gatwick Airport, in London, on January 31, 2022, Diogo Santos Coelho is under house arrest with an electronic bracelet in his apartment, in Vauxhall, United Kingdom. At the time, he was trying to enter the country to visit his mother, who suffers from a degenerative disease that causes the death of brain cells, and is in a nursing home. According to the investigation, many of the crimes he is suspected of occurred using computer servers hosted in Portugal.

Son of Portuguese parents, Diogo Santos Coelho lived in England for a few years, until his parents separated. At that time, the young man returned to Portugal with his father and his mother remained in the United Kingdom. At the age of 14, he created Raid Forums. He used, among others, the nicknames “Kevin Maradona” and “Shiza”, allegedly having at least two accomplices.