A foreign citizen suspected of committing crimes of aggravated robbery and kidnapping was extradited from the United Kingdom to Portugal and placed in preventive detention, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced this Thursday.
According to the extradited United Kingdom citizen was present, on Wednesday, at the Castelo Branco Court, “which ordered him to be taken to the Castelo Branco Prison, where he will await the further terms of the process in preventive detention”.
The case dates back to 2020, when the Directorate of the PJ Center, following a related investigation two robberies registered in September of that year and in November 2021, which involved the activities of a criminal group composed entirely of foreign citizens.
“In carrying out the aforementioned crimes, eight men and one woman were involved who, using paramilitary-type actions, carefully planned and carried out two violent actions in the Castelo Branco and Idanha-a-Nova areas, with the purpose of appropriating cryptocurrencies, in the possession of foreign citizens, residing in Portugal”.
Group forced transfer of three million euros in bitcoin
In the course of investigations carried out by the PJ, the last member of that group was extradited from the United Kingdom to Portugal, aaccused of one crime of aggravated robbery and five crimes of kidnapping.
“In the attack in 2020, the perpetrators surprised five people, who were living on a rural property, forcing one of them, under threat of firearms, to transfer dozens of bitcoins to multiple walletsat the time with a market value of around three million euros“.
The PJ also added that, during the second attack, “they approached five other people, but were unable to carry out the transfer, as planned”.
“Eight of the detainees were sentenced, by the Judicial Court of the District of Castelo Branco, to prison terms of between nine years and three years and eleven months, on March 25th”, says the note.
The PJ also revealed that seven members of the group were intercepted and detained on national territory and two in the United Kingdom, one of whom was sentenced to four years and two months in prison after being detained in that country in January 2024.
