Five of the seven people arrested this week for bicycle thefts, cycling accessories and tools rated at over 300 thousand euros were also part of the “Hyper gang”, a group of Odivelas that had been caught in Beja, a 11 Feb., during a robbery at a hypermarket in the city of Alentejo.
Lisbon Metropolitan Command (Cometlis) PSP Lisbon, arrested seven people, portuguese and spanish, linked to the "Gang of bicycles" responsible for several thefts of material linked to that sector, evaluated in more than 300 thousand euros.
Has learned the Lidador News (LN), five of the detainees are part of the well-known "Gang of the Hypers", group originating from a locality in the municipality of Odivelas (Lisbon), and that was intercepted in Beja last day 11 Feb., in flagrante delicto when carrying out a theft in a commercial establishment in the city, after the previous day they had perpetrated another theft in another commercial area of the same business group.
Na height, a 13 Feb., the five arrested, aged between 22 and 35 year old, were present at the first judicial interrogation of a criminal instruction judge (JIC) the Court of Beja, but they were eventually released without being heard.
The LN contacted the Coordinating Prosecutor of the Public Ministry (MP) Beja, that “I observe the secret of justice”, confirmed that “the detainees were not interrogated in the first judicial interrogation of the detained defendant”, justifying that the process “is under investigation, with a view to gathering evidence”, concluded.
When they were present at the JIC, the Beja District Command of the PSP gathered more than three dozen investigations of other thefts that occurred in different parts of the country, whose prime suspect was the "Hyper Gang". In order to “not kill” the investigation and the arrests that have now taken place, it was an understanding of the hierarchical chain of the MP that the detainees were released without being heard in order to create a sense of impunity and lack of consistent evidence to detain and arrest them.
Yesterday, Cometlis revealed in a statement that it “identified an organized group that during the years of 2019 and 2020, committed thefts in high-end bicycle shops and industrial machinery and tools stores, using burglary”, justifying that the PSP “linked the group to several thefts of items exceeding 300.000 euros, suspecting that this group may have subtracted assets worth more than 1 million euros”, which include thefts in commercial establishments.
In the two thefts carried out in Beja, the “Hyper Gang” entered the stores and as they took products off the shelves, they deactivated/started the alarms and “neutralized” the barcodes as if the products were paid for. In the first theft, they took goods worth 1.200 euros and in the second, when they were arrested, objects subtracted amounted to about 7.000 euros. besides money, material furto, alarms, fake number plates, A top-of-the-range vehicle was seized.
the detainees are, according to Cometlis, indicted for the crimes of aggravated theft and criminal association and after being presented to a JIC, two of them were held in preventive detention and the rest with periodic presentations, prohibition of contact with each other and of being absent from Portugal.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
