Carlos Alexandre Postpones Moot Debate in Xuxas Case Due to Judge Refusal Cases

Judge Carlos Alexandre postponed this Wednesday the instructive debate scheduled for Thursday on the international drug trafficking process involving Rubén Oliveira (Huxas) due to unresolved incidents of denial in Lisbon relations.

In a ruling issued this Wednesday and to which Lusa had access, Criminal Judge Carlos Alexandre says he has adjourned the mock debate without a new date after the Court of Appeal of Lisbon (TRL) informed him that the deadlines for the incidents raised by some of the arguidos were not completed by the date of the instructive debate.

Moreover, he was also informed by the Court that the answer to the complaint against the decision of the investigating judge was still pending.

Given TRL’s information on these incidents and the dates for the application and resumption of enforcement measures against the detained defendants, Judge Carlos Alexandre understood that the mock discussion must wait for the decision of this higher court.

As part of this process, the defendants Ricardo Macedo and Carla Oliveira, and the defendant José Manuel Cabral, alleged inconsistency with the order of Carlos Alexandre, which was scheduled for a mock debate, while the companies Vascopisis Lda and Auto Taxi Louridal (the accused companies) alleged a violation in the notice about appointment of educational debates.

For its part, on May 23, defendant Rubén Oliveira filed a waiver, which received a response from the judge, but which was the subject of an appeal in the High Court.

The briefing phase of the trial, the main defendant Ruben Oliveira, who was in preventive detention and until recently considered the largest Portuguese cocaine trafficker, began on the 14th in a meeting that lasted less than an hour and in which some defendants chose to pay their testimony.

According to the MP’s indictment, the criminal group led by Rubén Oliveira had “close ties to drug trafficking organizations in Brazil (such as 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.

The Huxas organization had – still according to the indictment – ramifications in various logistics structures in Portugal, namely the seaports of Setúbal and Leixões, the Humberto Delgado airport in Lisbon, the Mercado Abasecedor da Regiao de Lisboa (MARL) and others. which allows them to use their influence to import large quantities of drugs outside the control 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.

The indictment also mentions that the defendants used “encrypted systems commonly used by the world’s largest criminal organizations associated with drug trafficking and violent crime” to communicate with each other. It was about the use of encrypted services ENCROCHAT ECC and SKY ECC, systems used almost exclusively by criminal groups.

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