The investigation is based on suspicions of criminal association, qualified fraud and falsification of documents. The operation Traveler’s Route II involved investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Unit and the Madeira Criminal Investigation Department.
The defendants arrested – aged between 23 and 55 – in the 71 searches carried out will be heard at the Loures Court, for the application of coercive measures. As part of this process, there is already a defendant in pre-trial detention.
“The searches took place in Lisbon, Loures and the Autonomous Region of Madeira (RAM), namely in the municipalities of Funchal, Santa Cruz and Câmara de Lobos”reveals the Judiciary Police in a statement.
Early this Tuesday morning, the homes of several travel agents were searched.
“The investigation found that the defendants, with the aim of obtaining large illegitimate economic profits, decided to develop a criminal scheme with the aim of obtaining illegitimate profits through the social mobility subsidy, related to hundreds of non-existent trips, totaling undue reimbursements more than half a million euros”.
The social mobility subsidy came into force in the Madeira archipelago in September 2015.
“The steps now taken were aimed at collecting evidence, in order to consolidate the ongoing investigation into the crimes of criminal association, qualified fraud, falsification or counterfeiting of documents and money laundering, and the conduct that comprises them is considered highly organized crime”, adds the note published in site from PJ.The alleged criminal association now dismantled demonstrated high levels of organization, with different hierarchical levels, being made up of forgers, recruiters/raisers and controllers.
According to the Judicial Police, “the plan involved recruiting RAM residents, 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 in CTT stations on the mainland and, thus, received the reimbursement paid by the State”.
During the operation, it was possible to collect extensive evidence related to the criminal practice under investigation, namely through the execution of around 40 witness interviews.
The Judiciary Police also states that, “in the last five years, several police operations were carried out, aiming to dismantle criminal networks dedicated to the fraudulent use of the social mobility subsidy in RAM and the Autonomous Region of the Azores, amounting to a global amount of fraud against the coffers of the State of more than six million euros.”
On Monday morning, an Air Force plane landed in Funchal carrying the investigation team.
Tags: Suspected fraud mobility allowance detained operation Madeira
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