This Thursday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested in the Braga Court the conviction for the crime of receiving a woman from Braga tried on the charge of the Public Ministry of having robbed, in 2015, with her then companion, Mário Fernandes, the house of businessman Domingos Névoa, in Braga, stealing a Mercedes and 35 valuable objects.
Request extended to the other nine defendants, allegedly members of two groups that robbed the Santander bank in Braga and ten houses in the districts of Braga and Viana do Castelo
The Prosecutor considered, in the final allegations, that the defendant did not participate in the assault, but agreed to keep the objects, knowing that they did not belong to her, in this case, and among others, with a Luís Vitton bag and Prada glasses, owned by the entrepreneur’s daughter.
In February 2017, the woman was found by Névoa’s daughter at Farmácia Pipa with her suitcase, who recognized her, given that she had personalized it when she bought it. He went to her, but she fled the scene. Later, he searched Facebook and saw that he had posted a photo with glasses just like his own.
The MP says that the couple, displeased with the terms of a debt settlement agreement with the businessman’s Carclasse firm, decided to rob his house. Altogether, the stolen car and 35 objects are worth 117,000 euros.
In July 2017, GNR found at Cristina and Mário’s house, four of the stolen objects.
All doomed
Yesterday, the MP asked for the conviction of the ten defendants tried for robberies at Santander bank and houses in the Minho region, although in a few, few cases, he “dropped”, asking for absolution, some crimes.
The trial involved two different groups: one that made the assault on Santander (four million euros) and the home of singer Delfim Júnior, in Arcos de Valdevez – which earned 280,000 euros – and a restaurant in Ponte de Lima, where 200 thousand were stolen.
For this group, which includes PSP agent Carlos Alfaia and three other defendants, the magistrate asked for conviction by criminal association and for theft.
For the other, who made smaller or less profitable robberies, he requested the absolution of this crime, although suggesting the conviction for theft. In this case, he considered that, contrary to what robbed Santander, there was no organizational structure, of a criminal type, among those involved.
4.7 million
As MINHO has reported, the Public Prosecutor’s Office evaluated the accusation at 4.7 million euros, without counting the foreign currency, the stolen money. In the bank alone they took 2.6 million in cash and 400 pieces kept in 52 safes. In all, four million. Among the injured are also the businessman Domingos Névoa, the limiano singer Delfim Júnior, and the doctor and former athlete of SC Braga, Romeu Maia.
Criminal association
The MP considers as a mentor of the “criminal association” the accused Joaquim Marques Fernandes (from Priscos, Braga) who created the gang with Vítor Manuel Martins Pereira (from Vila do Conde), Luís Miguel Martins de Almeida (Braga) and Rui Jorge Dias Fernandes (Braga). The four are in custody.
Eight of the nine defendants are accused of criminal association and theft. The case involves PSP agent Carlos Alberto Alfaia da Silva, from Ponte de Lima, who gave information, in exchange for money, about which houses to rob. It also includes Paulo Sérgio Martins Pereira (brother of Vítor), from Famalicão, Mário Marques Fernandes, from Braga, André Filipe Pereira, from Famalicão, and Manuel Oliveira Faria, from Braga.
The gang acted “at least from 2017 until June 2018, in Braga, Viana do Castelo, Ponte de Lima and Arcos de Valdevez”. It used sophisticated technological resources to practice the assaults, as inhibitors of telecommunications, alarms, and even to neutralize dogs.
Upper middle class
They chose homes for upper middle class people and studied the habits of their owners. They used seven vehicles.
The robberies, carried out at night, passed by José Rodrigues Ribeiro’s house, in Mire de Tibães, Braga. The objects, money, gold and computers, were transported to the home of one of them and divided immediately. The next day, they were going to pay debts and deposit money.
This was followed by a residence in Areosa, in Viana do Castelo, (from where they took nothing), then another in Tenões, Braga. In 2018, made one in Areal de Cima, in Braga and Quinta da Carcaveira, in Ponte de Lima. There followed a house in Braga, with valuable paintings. To store the objects, they rented a warehouse in Barcelos.
Singer and businessman
In April they were the home of the singer Delfim Júnior, in Arcos de Valdevez. They brought 190 thousand in notes and several other foreign ones. They took a total of 230 thousand.
Another victim was the doctor Romeu Maia Barbosa, former athlete and clinical director of SC Braga. The gang started by stealing a BMW from him. Then they assaulted his house, taking dozens of products.
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