The arrest took place in Caldas da Rainha, after the suspects, of foreign identity, tried to swindle a man in a hotel in the Portuguese capital.
Two men of foreign nationality were arrested by the Public Security Police (PSP) on April 22 in Caldas da Rainha on suspicion of the crimes of qualified fraud and document forgery.
In a statement sent to Notícias ao Minuto, the PSP revealed that the suspects were arrested after trying to swindle a man in a Lisbon hotel.
The Portuguese authorities also explain that it is “usual for individuals who engage in this type of crime to make exploratory approaches, in various locations until the ‘business’ is done, which involves opening business companies for which they invite the victims to be partners and managers of the supposed companies in national territory, demonstrating for this purpose that they have several million euros to invest, and that these millions will be amounts diverted from governments or humanitarian aid associations in countries in conflict”, which the PSP calls “black euros”.
Once the plot has been set up and the victim has been convinced, the second part of the plan begins, which consists of making a “demonstration with a miraculous liquid that cleans the marked notes, either with stamps from a certain country or humanitarian association, thus allowing them to be introduced into the legal financial circuit, through the companies supposedly created and of which the victim will supposedly be the manager”.
Once the transaction has taken place, the suspects leave the scene and the victim is stripped of the money he invested, leaving him, according to the PSP, with “a suitcase full of papers and bottles containing the supposedly miraculous liquid, which only contains water and dye”.
The suspects were seized of a car, eight cell phones, 250 euros in ECB notes, two watches, a safe, 24 wads of paper similar to wads of notes, three bottles of the so-called “miracle liquid”, as well as two false identity documents.
The suspects have since been brought before a court for questioning, where they were given coercive measures which have not yet been made public.
