A man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Brazilian businessman inside his Berlin ball factory in Albufeira in 2019. The suspect was caught by the Southern Judicial Police (PJ) and brought to court this Saturday. He was remanded in custody.
The suspect, aged around 40 and of Brazilian nationality, allegedly beat the victim to death during a robbery. He has a previous record for robbery.
He fled, took refuge in the Lisbon area and recently returned to Albufeira. He had already been identified by the PJ, who in the meantime received the results of expert examinations, which were decisive in requesting an arrest warrant, which was executed last Thursday.
José Silva, a 59-year-old businessman, was found dead in September 2019 inside the “Triunfo Instantâneo” Berlin ball factory he owned in Patã de Baixo. It was the employees who, surprised that he wasn’t answering their phone calls to start the night shift, alerted the GNR at around 2.30 am. The soldiers broke down the office door, which had been locked, and found him inanimate, tied to a chair and with obvious signs of aggression, especially to his face.
At the time, the rescue teams that were called in carried out resuscitation maneuvers, but death was declared at the scene.
Faced with the scenario that pointed to a murder, the police were called in and began their investigation.
The violence of the attacks on his face and the fact that José Silva was found tied to a chair strengthened the robbery theory. He was beaten to reveal where he kept the money.
José Silva was a successful businessman, with Berlin balls distributed to vendors almost everywhere in the region. He was known for being a businessman who kept the money he earned with him and had already been robbed two years earlier by several men. This time, he wasn’t beaten, but he was left without around 40,000 euros.
José Silva was from Bahia, Brazil, and had opened the factory about nine years previously.
