Lisbon’s PSP police closed off the square in Martim Moniz yesterday evening for a new Special Crime Prevention Operation.
This was the first operation of its kind since the PR disaster of last year in which large numbers of immigrants were made to line up with their hands against a wall.
A source for the police force has explained that several incidents involving weapons have been detected in the Martim Moniz area throughout this year, and as a result it was decided to carry out this latest action “which did not result in the seizure of any weapons”.
In fact, of the 60 people checked – and we are not informed of criteria for checking – only one was found to be in “an irregular situation in Portugal”. Two were found with drugs for consumption (i.e. they were not traffickers) and three were identified as having ‘pending legal procedures’ (again, not meaning in any way that they were in defiance of bail terms).
The results were far less ‘dramatic’ to those of the controversial operation last December when two people were eventually detained (one for possession of a prohibited weapon and drugs and another who was suspected of at least eight offences of theft) and various weapons and cash ‘suspected of having come from illegal activities’ were seized, along with a mobile phone and 17 envelopes containing passport photos suspected of being used in illegal activities.
Yesterday’s operation took place between 5:30 and 7:00pm and involved officers from the Intervention Corps, Rapid Intervention Teams, the Foreigners and Border Control Unit, and “several police officers assigned to patrolling” (no number specified).
Source: LUSA
