Helder Bianchi
“Dangerous criminal” was already the leader of the gang at the age of 18 and will be one of the biggest drug traffickers in the country. In a previous arrest, he had already tried to run over PJ agents.
The former leader of Valbom gangin Gondomar, district of Porto, was shot by a member of the Judiciary Police (PJ) this Thursday, after trying to escape from the authorities, who were carrying out an operation to execute an arrest warrant for the suspect.
The “dangerous criminal”, Helder Bianchiwas shot in the leg when he tried to disarm an inspector, revealed the PSP in . It all happened at 4pm, on Rua Alto de Gramido, in Gondomar.
Everything will have just happened two hours after Biachi was acquitted by the Court of Viana do Castelo, on charges of kidnapping and assault, one of the two cases in which he is being tried — he is also responsible for a robbery, in Penafiel.
The suspect was sentenced to an effective prison sentence of two and a half years.
The escape attempt
The 36-year-old man, “realizing the approach of members of the Judiciary Police, began an attack escape attemptinitially in a vehicle and, when she was immobilized, on foot”, continues the press release.
When he was intercepted, in order to “protect the physical integrity of the PJ elements, it was necessary to resort to the use of a firearm through warning shots”, we also read.
“Subsequently, and during the physical confrontation to immobilize him, tried to disarm one of the inspectorsending up being convicted of having been hit, without serious injuries, by a gunshot to one of his lower limbs”, describes the PSP.
According to the PSP press release, the detainee was “immediately assisted, and was then taken to a hospital unit”. A source from the Gondomar Fire Department told Lusa that the man was transported to Santo António Hospital, in Porto.
Gang leader at 18
According to , the criminal became known in the world of crime for becoming, at just 18 years old, leader of the self-proclaimed Valbom Gang, which carried out robberies, armed robberies e carjackings. He was also involved with attempted murderincluding a Judiciary Police inspector, shot at close range at the door of his house, in Vermoim, Maia.
It is considered one of the biggest drug traffickers in the country. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010 and was released in 2018. A year later, he would be arrested on suspicion of armed robbery in Santo Tirso — another difficult arrest for police officers, who were the target of an attempted run-over by Bianchi.
