Update: After being heard yesterday in court, the five detainees were released at the end of the afternoon. Two were retained by the PSP since they had arrest warrants for other cases pending..
Beja's PSP detained last Saturday afternoon in flagrante delicto, five individuals, three Portuguese and two Brazilians, aged between 22 and 35 year old.
The individuals are suspected members of a group that was dedicated to the theft of drinks and electronic and communications devices., inside the stores of large commercial areas.
Known as the "Hyper Gang", the group comes from a town in the municipality of Odivelas (Lisbon) and is suspected of more than three dozen thefts committed since January 2022, in the Greater Lisbon area and in the Algarve.
The arrests occurred at about 16,00 Saturday hours, Inside the Model store, at Ratail Parque de Beja, at a time when the group already had over two shopping carts 4.000 euros of drinks, ready to leave the establishment without going through the cashiers and without activating the theft detectors. The five individuals were neutralized by the action of the PSP, having only one of them, martial arts practitioner resisting PSP agents, but he was also arrested.
The group had a very unique modus operandi of acting. They entered the stores and as they took the products off the shelves, “neutralized”, via a portable device, the action of barcodes as if they were paid. 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 "Gang of the Hypers" was betrayed by a theft made the day before 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., according to what had been stolen, several fake license plates, that the suspects used in each theft and recovered the material from the theft perpetrated on Friday.
The five men, some of them already sentenced to effective prison sentences, are being presented to a Judge of Criminal Investigation of the Court of Beja for the application of the competent measures of coercion.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
