Braga lawyer suspected of arms trafficking

A lawyer from Braga was charged with strong evidence of having been part of a criminal group suspected of trafficking weapons, some of war caliber, dismantled by the Regional Section for Combating Terrorism and Banditry of the PJ do Norte.

The Braga lawyer’s family is very conservative, even with connections to misericados and other traditionalist institutions, which surprised Braga circles and the Bar Association itself.

The mediation and arms trafficking network, from which the PJ made the largest arms seizure ever in Minho, was allegedly made up of street vendors, residing in Braga, one of whom even had three houses in this city.

The case is related to a criminal investigation that led to the confiscation of an impressive military arsenal, almost three years ago, in Braga, Guimarães, Póvoa de Lanhoso, Amares, Fafe, Felgueiras, Santo Tirso, Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde.

Subsequent investigations by the Judicial Police of the North (Porto) and Vila Real confirmed the suspicions that pointed to the lawyer, resident in Lamaçães, Braga, who is the son of a famous lawyer, this one from Barcelos, former CDS/PP deputy.

MINHO found that in the process, which was kept under lock and key, the existence of a lawyer named defendant has been one of the best kept secrets, in the case of a lawyer who has been practicing the forensic profession since January 2001.

The operation by the Judicial Police of the North and the PJ of Vila Real was launched in the first week of July 2021 and had its epicenter in Braga, Guimarães and Póvoa de Lanhoso, where the hard core of the mediation and arms trafficking network operated.

One of the suspects of altering the characteristics of firearms had a workshop in Amares and from whom that elite unit of the Northern Judiciary Police also confiscated a lot of illegal weapons, during house and establishment searches.

The firearms trafficking network, some of which are of war caliber, totaling dozens of weapons and thousands of ammunition, seized in July 2021, has more than twelve suspects and the prosecution by the Public Prosecutor’s Office is about to be finalized. be deducted.

Suspicions already confirmed by the Relationship

The Porto Court of Appeal has already confirmed the evidence found at the Northern Regional Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP), based in Porto, which has been overseeing, since the beginning, the criminal case related to arms trafficking.

In the ruling, that higher court considers that as a result of investigations by the PJ in Porto and Vila Real, mainly in Braga, at least since February 2020, all suspects would be involved in the crime of mediation and arms trafficking.

Surveillance and follow-up, as well as reports of external investigations and telephone tapping by the Judiciary Police, at one point caught Braga’s lawyer, on one of the occasions near a supermarket, close to his home, in Lamaçães, Braga.

In view of the appeal that was considered, the Porto Report sufficiently confirms that the lawyer, along with his co-accused, would also be involved in the acquisition of weapons and in favoring contacts with those interested in weapons and ammunition.

One of the suspects, resident on the outskirts of the city of Vila do Conde, in addition to being caught with a large number of firearms, had forged a professional PSP agent card, which was then seized by the Judiciary Police.