AFTER A series of fatal shootings in Porto last month, Lisbon has now become the focus of two apparent gangland related nightclub shootings.
Two security guards at a disco in the Campo Grande area of Lisbon were shot in the early hours of last Monday morning according to Polícia Judiciaries (PJ) sources.
The crime occurred around 3am according to the same source who refused to give more details so as not to prejudice the ongoing operation.
The two security guards, who worked at the African disco Nell’s, are aged 32 and 34 years old.
Both men were rushed to Lisbon’s Santa Maria hospital in a serious condition, along with three women who sustained light injuries during the attack.
SIC TV reported that shots were fired at the door of the disco by two men wearing balaclavas.
A statement to the same TV channel confirmed that the suspects pushed away the group of club clients hanging around the doorway before firing at the security guards.
The nightclub proprietors also told the same TV channel that the whole incident was captured on CCTV.
The crime happened only a week after the unconnected murder of a Porto nightclub owner which forced the police authorities to step up security at night in the city.
A department of the Criminal Investigative Intervention Police (PSP Investigação Criminal e o Corpo de Intervenção) carried out an operation to check on the professional credentials and licenses of security guards working in bars and discos in and around Porto.
They discovered that 12 security guards were working ‘irregularly and illegally’ in as far as they were not trained or licensed to be security guards but would be better defined as ‘bouncers.’
A PSP official said that five establishments were issued with fines and a further dozen were given warnings.
The National Association for Security Guards (Associação Nacional de Vigilantes) admitted that none of the individuals had any type of professional training, registered identification or association membership required for the function they had been employed to do.
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