PJ police have detained two women, employed at a ULS (family health centre) in the Coimbra region, “responsible for fraudulent subscription of thousands of immigrants into SNS health system”, reports SIC this morning.
In a note sent to SIC, the force explains that the arrests took place as part of the wider “Gambérria” operation, first publicised in May when it dismantled an alleged organised criminal group dedicated to the repeated practice of crimes of aiding illegal immigration, corruption, money laundering and document forgery.
Last month there was a new arrest as the network was described as having facilitated the entry into Portugal of “thousands of illegal immigrants from a Portuguese-speaking country in South America (there is only one: Brazil) and from Hindustan”
These latest arrests came on the back of warrants issued by the regional DIAP (department of investigation and penal action) of Coimbra.
Says the PJ statement, the women, aged 40 and 54, “will be presented before the central court of criminal instruction (TCIC), to hear detention/ bail measures”.
The arrests followed searches of two residences and at the ULS in Laços, Cortegaça, in the borough of Ovar where the women worked.
Evidence found “unequivocally links the detainees to the crimes of passive corruption, aiding and abetting illegal immigration, and computer fraud, among others,” says the PJ’s note, adding that a “huge collection of documentation used in the improper allocation” of user numbers was seized “which allows for the consolidation of the legalisation process in national territory and guarantees medical assistance through the SNS health service.”
According to a later report, the women managed to ‘insert’ more than 10,000 immigrants into the SNS health service, 500 of them who gave the same home address, the Rua do Benformoso, Lisbon – a street transformed by the recent wave of immigration from the Asian sub-continent.
The illegal immigration network “paid the women who never dealt directly with immmigrants, nor received money directly from these people”. They were paid, however, according to the people they signed up into the health service, says SIC.
Operation Gambérria has now resulted in the arrests of 16 people. Another 26 are ‘arguidos’ (official suspects), among them are seven businessmen, a lawyer (female), and a former employee (also female) of the foreign affairs ministry’s general directorate of consular affairs and Portuguese communities.
Source: SIC Notícias
