Lawyers raise the issue of the invalidity of the receipt of evidence during the mock debate on the Huksas process.

An instructive debate on the international drug-trafficking trial involving Ruben Oliveira (Huksas) was rescheduled this Wednesday for August 28 after some lawyers declared invalid when evidence was obtained.

“The judge has already thought about this and will continue on the 28th, when other lawyers from the public ministry will answer the questions we raised,” said lawyer Carlos Melo Alves, a representative of the defendant Gurvinder Singh.

After other delays already endured, an instructive discussion of the process was scheduled for this Wednesday at 9:30 am.

The lawyer explained that several issues were raised at the level of evidence, which are mainly related to evidence coming from France, obtained after the French police authorities managed to gain access to the encrypted services ENCROCHAT ECC and SKY ECC, systems used almost exclusively by criminal groups. .

“There were people who were in ENCROCHAT and had nothing to do with it, and the question arises whether the access made by the French authorities to ENCROCHAT can be assessed under Portuguese law if it is after all legal,” he said. .

Carlos Melo Alves noted that the fact that there was a duplication of cases was also mentioned: “two cases in which the State Ministry investigated these individuals. The same government ministry cannot have two cases investigating the same people.”

The investigative phase of the trial, the main defendant Rubén Oliveira, who was on remand and until recently considered Portugal’s biggest cocaine trafficker, began on 14 June in a meeting that lasted less than an hour, in which some defendants chose to make statements. .

According to the deputy’s indictment, the criminal group, led by Ruben Oliveira, had “close ties” with drug trafficking organizations in Brazil (for example, Comando Vermelho) and Colombia, and since mid-2019 has been importing cocaine in large quantities from South America.

The organization, led by Shuksas, had ties to Sergio Carvalho, a drug dealer known as the “Brazilian Escobar” who was responsible for exporting tons of cocaine to Europe.

According to a source connected to the trial, Gurvinder Singh blames Ruben Oliveira. According to the indictment, the Huxas organization had ramifications in various logistics structures in Portugal, namely the seaports of Setúbal and Leixões, Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon, Mercado Abastesedor da Regiao de Lisboa (MARL), etc., thus allowed the importation of large quantities of drugs without the supervision of the authorities.

The cocaine was brought into Portugal through companies importing fruits and other food and non-food products using shipping containers. The drug also entered the country in suitcases by plane from Brazil to Portugal.

This trial, involving 21 defendants (18 individuals and three companies), includes crimes of aggravated drug trafficking, criminal association for the purpose of illegal trafficking, money laundering and possession of prohibited weapons.