Two people were caught red-handed by GNR police on Wednesday last week stealing 170 kilos of avocados, worth around €425, from a farm in São Bartolomeu de Messines (Silves).
The arrests were made after authorities were alerted that a theft was underway.
The avocado thieves, a 23-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, were named official suspects (arguidos) and the case was handed over to Silves’ criminal court.
Authorities have been on high alert ever since carob and avocado producers in the Algarve complained last summer that the situation was “out of control and driving them to despair”.
João Inácio from the JBI Group, an Algarve-based fruit producer, said at the time he suspected “well-organised groups” were behind the thefts of hundreds of kilos of avocados. (click here
