Defendants received half a million euros in refunds for trips that were never taken.
The Judiciary Police (PJ) announced, through a statement, that it carried out, on Tuesday morning, a police operation to execute 71 search and seizure warrants, home and non-domestic, as well as the arrest, of five suspects of committing fraud against the State, within the scope of the social mobility subsidy. The searches took place in Lisbon, Loures and the Autonomous Region of Madeira, namely in the municipalities of Funchal, Santa Cruz and Câmara de Lobos.
The steps now taken were aimed at collecting evidence in order to consolidate the ongoing investigation into the crimes of criminal association, qualified fraud, forgery or forgery of documents and money laundering, with the conduct that comprises them being considered criminality, highly organized.
The investigation found that the defendants decided to develop a criminal scheme with the aim of obtaining large illegitimate economic benefits through the social mobility allowance, related to hundreds of non-existent trips, with a global value of undue reimbursements exceeding half a million euros.
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 documentation forged in CTT stations on the continent and, thus, received reimbursement paid by the State. The now dismantled criminal association demonstrated high levels of organization, with different hierarchical levels, being made up of forgers, recruiters/raisers and controllers.
Operation ‘Rota do Viajante II’ involved investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Unit and the Madeira Criminal Investigation Department.
The defendants now detained, aged between 23 and 55, will be brought before the judicial authority in due course, at the Loures criminal investigation court, for the application of coercive measures. As part of this process, there is already one defendant in pre-trial detention.
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 PJ, in the investigation led by the DIAP of Loures, will continue the investigation, after analyzing the evidence collected, aiming to fully investigate all criminal conduct.
Over the last five years, several police operations have been 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, with an overall value of fraud against the State coffers of more than six million euros.
The PJ praises the decisive role and collaboration of the Portuguese Air Force, whose support was crucial in safeguarding the integrity of the investigation, in the operational assembly of the human and logistical device, in the transport of the detained defendants and the seized evidence, within the legal deadline for presenting those .