There are eight defendants in pre-trial detention. In the indictment the prosecutor (MP) justifies that the network made the total amount of 19.767.141,09 euros.
The DIAP Public Prosecutor's Office in Évora filed an indictment, for trial in collective court, against 22 people, 17 foreign nationals and 5 Portuguese, aged and between 28 and 57 year old, imputing to each of them, the commission of human trafficking crimes, criminal association, facilitate illegal immigration, association to aid illegal immigration and money laundering. They were also accused of the same crimes 13 commercial companies, held or managed by some of the accused.
In the group of accused citizens there are two Portuguese accountants, residents in Cuba and Ferreira do Alentejo, who are also accused of the crime of forgery of documents.
The criminal organization investigated exploited the labor of people recruited in Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, India, Senegal, Nepal, East Timor and Pakistan, who were put to work in the district of Beja, living in inhumane and degrading conditions and many of them without receiving any monetary remuneration for the work performed, and when they occurred, were in small amounts, between 20 the 200 EUR / month.
In 21 November 2023, the National Counter Terrorism Unit (UNCT) the Judicial Police (PJ), carried out on the day 21 November 2023 “Operation Mirror”, divided by Évora and Cuba and from this second, resulted in the identification of around fifty victims who were exploited, twenty-two suspects were arrested, eight of which, six men and two women, are in preventive detention.
The remaining defendants, including the two accountants, were subjected to periodic presentations three times a week, ban on leaving the country and surrender of passport and ban on contact with the other defendants, victims and workers of the defendants listed in the records.
The indictment order from DIAP Regional de Évora, that the Lidador News (LN) We had access, with 370 pages, describes that network activity developed between 2019 and 2023, It was Arguida Ileana Mezo, a Romanian citizen of 45 year old, who led all the group's actions, being known and addressed as “engineer”, “boss” and “boss”.
When searching the suspects' homes, the PJ, managed to apprehend ten of them, the amount of 94.353 euro cash, and the two accountants had in their possession, spread across different areas of the home, 29 thousand euros in banknotes. At the network boss's house, Several objects in gold and emeralds worth almost 64 thousand euros.
Confiscated in the order of the process are 39 motor vehicles used by the defendants in their personal capacity or to transport workers, three motorcycles and a motorbike 4, still without registration and five urban buildings.
The defendants' activity developed between 2019 and 2023, generated thousands of euros which the MP maintains “managed to make the total amount of 19.767.141,09 euros”, bank accounts and cash seized during the operation.
Numbers from the “Operation Mirror” trial
18 of victims were heard for future memory, 12 have already made statements before the MP magistrate, There 58 prosecution witnesses among PJ inspectors, military GNR, victims, managers and employees of companies that contracted services from the defendants.
Accessory penalties
The MP calls for cases to be condemned for the crime of human trafficking, nine defendants, are expelled from national territory and that 13 defendant companies, are prohibited from carrying out any activity, without prejudice to being dissolved.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
