The five individuals, four Portuguese and one Brazilian, aged between 23 and 24 year old, who were part of the so-called “Hyper Gang”, will be tried for committing five qualified crimes, four for theft and one for forgery of documents.
According to the indictment order of the public prosecutor (MP) Beja, that JN had access to, the defendants, three prisoners, one with an obligation to remain in the home (OPH) and a fifth escaped from justice, will be tried in the Court of Beja for thefts committed between 11 January and 11 February 2023, in commercial areas in Évora and Beja.
Individuals residing in the Padre Cruz neighborhood, in Pontinha, municipality of Lisbon, worked in groups within hypermarkets, Where did they steal alcoholic beverages from?, food products and mobile phones worth 10.537,57 euros, having been detained by PSP agents, in the last of two thefts carried out in Beja, still inside the Modelo store, in the city's Ratail Park.
The group had a very unique modus operandi of acting. They entered the stores and as they took the products off the shelves, “neutralized” barcodes as if they were paid for, through an alarm deactivator that they were careful to steal as soon as they arrived at the establishments. After three of the suspects, they simulated an argument between them, attracting the attention of security guards, while the two left the place with the products, which they carried in a vehicle parked on the spot.
The “Hyper Gang”, suspected of more than three dozen thefts committed since January 2022, in the Greater Lisbon area and in the Algarve, was betrayed by the theft carried out on the morning of the day 11 February at the Worten store, on the mainland located at the other end of the city, next to the IP2, from where they took various electronic material and cell phones. Video camera footage viewed, the agents of the Criminal Investigation Police (EIC) they asked other district commands for information and realized that they were in the presence of a very dangerous and organized group. After entering the Retail Parque establishment, “undercover” agents waited for them to be ready to leave the space to act and make the arrests.
In addition to the seizure of beverages, A heavy-duty vehicle was also seized., used in thefts and several false number plates, that the suspects used in each theft and recovered the theft material.
The five men, some of them already sentenced to effective prison sentences, have pending processes underway in Tomar, Montemor-o-Novo, Cascais and Vila Franca de Xira. Two of the defendants are detained in the Prison Establishment (EP) Lisbon, to the order of crimes committed in processes carried out in this region, one in preventive detention in EPBeja and another in OPH in connection with thefts carried out in Alentejo and a fifth is on the run from justice, after being notified to appear in court to have the coercive measure of identity and residence term changed (TIR).
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
