PJ arrests five people in Madeira on suspicion of air travel fraud | Judiciary Police

The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested, this Tuesday morning, five suspects of fraud with the purchase of air travel in Madeira, as part of the call Operation Traveler Route II. The suspects fictionalized the purchase and use of plane tickets, managing to fraudulently obtain the social mobility allowance, PÚBLICO confirmed after the CNN and the News Diary have advanced with the information. The fraud, according to the Judiciary in a statement, caused losses of more than half a million euros to the State.

“The plan involved attracting residents of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, who were provided with documents necessary to withdraw this subsidy and previously falsified, such as airline tickets, tickets and reservations, invoices and receipts, which, accompanied by elements of the criminal network, presented forged documentation at CTT stations on the mainland and, thus, received the reimbursement paid by the State”, the note reads.

The Judiciary indicates that in this operation executed 71 search and seizure warrants, home and non-domestic, in the municipalities of Funchal, Santa Cruz and Câmara de Lobos. Under investigation are crimes of criminal association, qualified fraud, forgery or forgery of documents and money laundering, illicit acts that, highlights the PJ, fall under highly organized crime.

“The now dismantled criminal association demonstrated high levels of organization, with different hierarchical levels, being made up of forgers, recruiters/raisers and controllers”, specifies the note.

In this process, which is being carried out by the Loures Public Prosecutor’s Office, there is already one person in pre-trial detention. The detainees, aged between 23 and 55, will be transported to the Loures Criminal Investigation Court, where they will be subject to their first judicial interrogation. The defendants allegedly took advantage of the fragility of the verification system associated with the social mobility allowance to deceive the State.

The operation was carried out by National Anti-Corruption Unit and the Criminal Investigation Department of Madeira​. ​”During the operation, it was possible to collect extensive evidence related to the criminal practice under investigation, namely through the execution of around 40 interviews with witnesses”, the statement said.

The PJ also reports that, in the last five years, several police operations were carried out to dismantle criminal networks dedicated to the fraudulent use of the social mobility subsidy in both Madeira and the Azores, with these frauds collectively causing a loss of more than six millions of euros to the State coffers.