The Provincial Police Command in Huíla recently arrested three national citizens, aged between 20 and 35, including the victim’s driver. Everyone is involved in the death of an Eritrean citizen and the theft of more than 36 million kwanzas
The three citizens, who were presented to the press yesterday, are part of an association of criminals made up of 20 members, called the “Champions League”.
The leaders of this association were directly involved in the armed robbery, where they stole 36 million Kwanzas and the death of a 40-year-old citizen of Eritrean nationality.
The detainees are João Herculano, a driver for the Eritrean citizen’s company; Wilson António Alfredo, better known as Jikilson, and Jilsónia Vieira Cardoso, who on the day in question drove the motorbike used in the robbery.
The young Jilsónia, also known as Sónia, is the girlfriend of Bernabé Ilustra, better known as Bad Ilustre (propfuge), the alleged shooter who fatally killed the Eritrean businessman.
According to the Provincial Commander of the National Police in Huíla, Divaldo Martins, the group carried out its actions in the provinces of Huíla, Huambo and Benguela.
“When we talk about those involved, we are not saying that all the members of this number cited had criminal activity in our municipality of Lubango, but they are part of a group.
And, under the terms of the Law, it is enough for more than one person to commit a crime, the crime of criminal association is being committed.
And here we are talking about a group of more than 20 elements”, he said. The “Champions League” group, made up of more than 20 members, committed robberies using firearms, with a preference for stealing cell phones, jewelry and money.
On the 30th of January, a pair of robbers, members of the so-called “Liga”, namely Wilson António Alfredo, better known as Jikilson, and Bad Ilustre, traveled from the city of Huambo to the city of Lubango, having stayed in the neighborhood of Mictha, at the home of citizen Jilsónia Vieira Cardoso, for yet another criminal action.
Sónia denies being involved in the crime, admits that the criminals stayed at her house for five days, but did not know what they were doing, highlighting that she only received them because one of them was her boyfriend.
“I only realized the crime after I saw some people looking for a cell phone that was in a folder left by my boyfriend at my house. I’m innocent, they never told me anything about the robbery”, said Sónia.
Nine robberies in Lubango
In Lubango, and in the company of other members, the group carried out a total of nine robberies, with emphasis on qualified robberies between the 30th of January and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of February in various neighborhoods of the city.
With their actions, the criminals managed to loot a total of 37,640,000.00 kz from their prey, of which 1 million and 300 thousand Kwanzas were stolen from a citizen who was circulating on the public road, in the Mutundo neighborhood, with Bad Ilustre and Jikilson as protagonists. .
The victim was shot and later taken to a hospital.
The most profitable robbery, in the city of Lubango, took place in Bairro Joaquim Kapango, known as Zona Industrial, in a combined action between Pidji, coming from Benguela, Bad Ilustre, from Huambo, and Jikilson, also from Huambo, with 36,000,000 stolen. 00 kz, from the hands of the Eritrean citizen, identified only as Samy, who died at the scene.
Company driver involvement
Among the three citizens detained by the National Police, in Huíla, is João Herculano, a native of Huambo, accused of being the person who gave information to the criminals that, on that day, they would transport large sums of money with his boss.
According to the provincial commander, Divaldo Martins, João Herculano had been aware of the value since February 4th, that he would leave the company for one of the bank branches and passed this information to Pidji, Bad Ilustre and Jikilson, who were already waiting for the right time for action.
Suspicions about João Herculano took shape due to the fact that he spent the day of the robbery with his cell phone turned off and with a van loaded with merchandise that was partly unknown.
“The driver is a fundamental part of this process, and there is something we want to convey here: this driver is from Huambo and regularly visits that province, and we believe that this circumstance allowed him to get to know Bad Ilustre, to whom he gave all the information about the robbery,” he described.
On the other hand, Divaldo Martins revealed that the money stolen during the nine robberies was not recovered.
However, it is already known that Bad Ilustre, who is on the run, left Lubango for the province of Benguela.
“Citizen Sónia was also arrested and, although at first she had avoided answering truthfully, she ended up telling the truth, telling us that on the 5th, after realizing that the police were looking for her, Jikilson and Bad Ilustre left with two folders and it was in these two folders that the money was located”, he maintained.
By: João Katombela, in Huíla
