A prisoner in the Coimbra jail took advantage of a precarious way to kill two men “his acquaintances from the prison environment” and hide the bodies, concludes the Judiciary Police, in a criminal investigation already sent to the Porto Public Ministry.
The suspect will be the one who starred in the massacre in Vila Fria, Viana do Castelo in 1995, stabbing an uncle, aunt and nephew to death.
In a statement today, the Northern Directorate of the Judiciary Police (PJ / Norte) informs that the investigation process began with the reporting of the disappearance, on the night of July 1, 2018, of a 38-year-old man, resident in Gondomar, “With a criminal record and convictions for crimes against life and drug trafficking”.
Prosecutor convinced that Viana’s triple murderer led drug trafficking in prison
The statement omits names, but news reports at that time noted the disappearance of a member of the so-called “Gangue de Valbom”, a Gondomar group that in 2006 and 2007 assaulted dozens of jewelers and pharmacies. The disappearance occurred after a trip to Viana do Castelo “where he had an appointment with a convict for murder he had met in Coimbra jail”.
The investigation, “of a very high complexity”, made it possible to clarify that, in addition to that citizen, two days later a second individual, 42 years old, also residing in Gondomar, disappeared “and sentenced to high prison terms for the practice of crimes against life”.
For the PJ / Norte, “the multiple and persistent diligences carried out during two years made it possible to conclude that both disappeared were killed by the same person, with the concealment of the respective corpses”, which were not found.
“It was also possible to establish a causal link between the two murders, with a firm conviction that the second victim was killed for knowing the circumstances of the disappearance and death of the first,” stresses the police.
In the statement, the PJ / Norte details that the crimes were consummated when the accused was serving a prison sentence in the Coimbra Prison.
“He took advantage of a precarious five-day trip to commit the murders of the two individuals, his acquaintances from the prison environment,” he says.
While the investigation now concluded, the defendant was once again sentenced, this time to 11 years in prison, for the practice of a crime of drug trafficking, consummated in the prison, notes the PJ / Norte.
These are “facts connected to the two homicides now unveiled by this investigation”, he adds.
On November 18, 2019, an inmate was sentenced to 11 years in prison for leading a drug trafficking network for the Coimbra jail.
The first instance decision was signed “without reservations”, on March 25 this year, by the Porto Court of Appeal.
This man carried out in 1995 the massacre in Vila Fria, Viana do Castelo, stabbing an uncle, aunt and nephew. In April 2002, he committed three crimes of simple kidnapping and one of aggravated extortion in Portuzelo, in the same municipality as Alto Minho.
He is also the man who, on Christmas Day 2001, escaped, near the Vila Franca de Xira hospital, in the Lisbon district, from a cell van at the Vale de Judeus Prison, where he was serving a 20-year sentence.
In 2017, already in the Coimbra jail, he started to benefit from precarious departures.
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