On 13th April 2014 at 1600 hrs the GNR Subdestacamento Coastal Control Unit Vila Real de Santo Ant�nio arrested two foreign individuals aged about 40 years and seized a boat carrying about 1,060 kilos of hashish.

The operation commenced when the Maritime Service Guardia Civil de Huelva started tracking a suspicious vessel and verified that it was sailing towards the Rio Guadiana.

The Coastal Subdestacamento of Vila Real de S. Ant�nio was notified and collaboration requested in order to intercept the vessel. After the vessel was intercepted two foreign nationals who were on board were intercepted and several bales of hashish with a weight of 1060 kgs were found hidden in the inside a false bottom of the boat.

During the joint operation conducted along the length of the river another similar vessel, which also contained hashish in a false bottom was discovered.

On 18th April 2014 at 2300 hrs a female Dutch tourist aged 25 years was robbed by two men at Travesa de Malpique, Albufeira. The victim who was accompanied by her friend was walking along the path which is steep and poorly lit in an isolated area. She was approached by the men one of whom snatched her handbag pushing her to the ground. She was taken to Faro hospital with a broken arm.

A short while later in the early hours of the morning another robbery involving two tourists took place near the Beata Vicente statue, also in Albufeira.

The GNR are investigating both robberies.

Comment

If anyone was in the area at the time and saw anyone acting suspiciously then please contact the GNR Albufeira at 289 590790 or by email to the GNR Albufeira through the Safe Communities Algarve "Report Suspicious Activities" link

The new General Commander of the National Guard, Lt. Gen. Matthew Manuel Costa da Silva Couto, took office on 21st April 2014 at 16:00 hrs, at the School of the Guard at Queluz, during a military ceremony. 

In 2008 a person making a complaint inside a police station at Mocavide was attacked by 10 persons who entered the station and accused him of reporting them to police. The PSP subsequently issued a directive on 2nd May 2008 directing that the manning of police stations should be increased overnight to improve security. Hitherto in some small posts only one officer was manning the building whereas others were on patrol.

Recently however the President of Associacao Sindical dos Profissionais Policia, Paulo Rodrigues stated this directive is not always being followed and has called on government to ensure there are sufficient resources provided to enable this to be fully implemented. 

Following a Freedom of information request made to police it was reported on 23rd April that 981 children had been caught with weapons in schools in the UK since 2011. Of these 80 were primary school children, the youngest aged 8 with a knife. Included in the weapons were a firearm, a stun gun, knives, a meat cleaver, wooden sticks with nails and knuckledusters.

Of those caught 329 were prosecuted.

It is felt that the true figure could be much higher as only 31 of the 52 police forces provided information.

The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (CEMGFA) and Ministry of Defence have endorsed a proposal transferring the responsibility for the investigation of military personnel involved in criminal activity and the forming of tribunals (court marshalls) from the Judicial Police to the GNR. The rationale behind this is that it is more appropriate that the GNR, as a military organization, undertake this role as they are more familiar with military "affairs", whereas Judical Police (who are non-military) are the investigators for serious crime in Portugal. 

According to the Correria da Manha newspaper although the manpower have been transferred to the GNR to undertake this work the budget to pay for this has yet to become available.

Comment

The move seems to reflect the system currently in use in many other countries including the UK where the Military Police are responsible for the investigation of serious crime committed by military personnel on military premises.

According to the recently published RASI report for 2013 as at the end on 2013 there were a total of 14,284 persons in prison in Portugal including 2590 being held in custody pending trial. This is a similar figure compared with 2012.

Of those in prison 13,431 (94%) are men. The total foreigners in prison stands at 2647 (18.5%) and the main nationalities in custody are those from Cape Verde - 827; Brasil - 326; Romania - 249; Angola - 219 and Guine Bissau - 217. A total of 24 British nationals are in prison compared with 26 from Holland; 35 from France and 144 from Spain.

A breakdown of crimes committed by those sentenced shows: 29.2% for crimes against property; 24.9% for crimes against persons, 19.4% for drug crime (mainly trafficking) and the remainder for other crimes. 

In terms of sentences, approximately 30% of those in prison are serving sentences of between 3 - 6 years: 20% between 6 - 9 years and 13% of between 1 - 3 years.

Since the end of 2010 the prison population has grown sharply by some 23%. The number of foreigners in prison has increased from 2390 to 2590 (8.4%) during the same period.

According to the latest figures available from the International Centre for Prison Statistics, the number of prisoners in Portugal is 120 per 100,000 population. The worlds highest is the US with 737 prisoners per 100,000 population; Russia 615; England and Wales 148 and Spain 144.  

such as:   

  a phishing attack   

Unfortunately we live in a world where a heavy reliance on on-line banking has enabled
fraudsters to disrupt the lives of many through on-line fraud and attacks on computers for the
purpose of causing misery and inconvenience. This type of "arm-chair" crime is increasing
rapidly.

Safe Communities Algarve has put together a list of bank security centres and pages
where you can check for scams that maybe circulating in the bank's names. 

"Dear Valued Customer,

PayPal security team is sending you this notification
message because we seem to be having errors in the
proper verification of your account. This might be
due to one of the following reasons:

*A recent Change in your Account Details
*An Internal error within our servers

CLICK HERE to rectify these Errors.

Regards,
PayPal Online Security Team".

On no account click on the "CLICK HERE" above as to do so will likely infect your computer with Malware (malicious Software).