The initial statement from the Attorney General’s Office mentioned that the investigation covered the period between 2014 and 2020, involving more than one million euros (excluding VAT).
On Tuesday, the Judiciary Police conducted an operation that initially aimed to execute seven arrest warrants, which later increased to eight, involving mayors, businessmen, public officials, political officeholders, and high-ranking public officials.
As part of the operation, 43 home and non-residential searches were also carried out, two of which were conducted at municipal headquarters and four at regional secretariats.
According to the Judiciary Police, there are suspicions of crimes including economic participation in business, receiving or offering undue advantages, prevarication, and prohibited financing of political parties.
The investigation was launched in 2020 by the National Anti-Corruption Unit and the Madeira Criminal Investigation Department, focusing on “conduct considered as highly organized crime.”
A judicial source also indicated to Lusa that the investigation is related to the searches and arrests carried out earlier this year on Madeira Island, involving, among others, the then mayor of Funchal, Pedro Calado. The president of the Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque, was also named as a suspect.
The case involves public contracts awarded by regional public entities, through their representatives, political officeholders, and officials, to companies controlled by a single individual, as well as other companies managed by people with whom he has friendly relations, in violation of public tender rules.
Among those detained on Tuesday are Carlos Teles, the mayor of Calheta and president of the Madeira Association of Municipalities (AMRAM), former Regional Secretary of Agriculture Humberto Vasconcelos, the president of the board of directors of the Madeira Health Administration Institute (IASAÚDE) Bruno Freitas, former Regional Director of Agriculture Paulo Santos, as well as Humberto Drumond and Miguel Nóbrega, administrators of Dupla DP, a communication, advertising, and marketing agency, and two public officials.
The operation is called “AB INITIO” and involved 110 Judiciary Police officers, four prosecutors, two judges from the Funchal Judicial Court, and six members of the Technical Advisory Unit.
The detainees were held at the Funchal Prison and were brought to the Funchal Court today for their first judicial interrogation.