The five defendants who were part of the “Gangue dos Hipers” dismantled by agents from the Criminal Investigation of the PSP of Beja, in 2 February 2023, They were sentenced, in legal difficulties, by a Collective of Judges of the Court of Beja, to single effective prison sentences between 4 years and 9 months and seven years.
In total the gang was sentenced to 44 years and 10 months in prison.
The group made up of four Portuguese and one Brazilian, were tried and convicted of five qualified crimes, four for theft and one for forgery of documents, facts committed between 11 January and 11 February 2023, in commercial areas in Évora and Beja.
João Martins, of 25 year old, considered the leader of the group, who in police circles is also known as the head of the “Joãozinho Gang”, He was sentenced to 7 years in prison and Sandro Lima, of 29 year old, who escaped justice for several months, He was sentenced to 6 year old. With 5 years and 6 months and 5 years and 2 Wilker Costa was sentenced for months, the Brazilian citizen, of 26 years and Pedro Rodrigues, of 34 year old, respectively. Finally, to the youngest of the group, Lucas Rocha, of 23 year old, the penalty of 4 years and 9 months, that has not been suspended.
The Collective of Judges maintained the coercive measures to which the defendants João and Lucas are subject, the first in preventive detention and the second in the obligation to remain in the house with electronic surveillance, while for the remaining three, it was decided to issue warrants for transportation to the prison establishment, after the ruling becomes final.
The advantage and 2.058,84 euros, of the theft of the cable in one of the commercial areas, and if it is not recovered in kind, three of the defendants are ordered to pay jointly that amount.
In the ruling handed down last Friday, and what Lidador Notícias (LN) We had access, the president of the Collective of Judges considered that “the proven facts demonstrate that each of them assumed a concrete task position, which necessarily implies a prior agreement, preparation, concertation and joint execution”, which is not unrelated to the fact that they all live in a neighborhood of a parish in Lisbon.
It should be remembered that the facts in which they were convicted, were practiced between 11 January and 11 February 2023, in commercial areas in Évora and Beja, with the five defendants acting as a group inside the hypermarkets, steal alarm deactivators from products, “neutralizing” barcodes as if they were paid for.
Some of the defendants have already been sentenced to effective prison sentences, and there are still several ongoing processes pending in Tomar, Montemor-o-Novo, Cascais and Vila Franca de Xira, and are also suspected of more than three dozen thefts committed since January 2022, in the Greater Lisbon area and in the Algarve.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
