A Coimbra court is trying 37 people in connection with the theft of a catalytic converter.

Thirty-seven people will begin trial in November in a Coimbra court in a trial related to the theft and subsequent sale of catalytic converters, drug trafficking, and a criminal association.

The trial is scheduled to begin on the morning of November 7 at the Coimbra court in a room adapted to accommodate 37 defendants, as well as dozens of lawyers.

According to the instructions to which the Luza agency had access, a total of 37 defendants are accused of thousands of crimes, with the vast majority accounting for 14 elements, 11 of them from the same family, from the municipality of Figueira da Foz. which have formed a criminal group since at least 2019.

The alleged offenses include criminal enterprise, aggravated drug trafficking, breach of judicial secrecy, malfeasance by a barrister or solicitor, forgery or forgery of documents, computer forgery and coercion. They also include possible crimes of qualified theft (14 defendants will be responsible for 323 crimes of qualified theft each), slavery, human trafficking, damage caused by violence, qualified injury to physical integrity and others.

This group, “endowed with stability, permanence and opacity”, was organized “in a structured and hierarchical manner and distributed tasks among itself”, and was led by two brothers and a brother-in-law.

Members of the group “always acted under the coordination, orders and instructions” of the three leaders, dedicating themselves to committing various crimes, including drug trafficking and catalytic converter theft, “in constant and close cooperation.” They shared “material and human resources, as well as the income generated, which, at least in part, always returned to the organizational structure.” The document, which runs to more than 800 pages, said the separation of material and human resources and the protection of members was done “to prevent them from being involved in such crimes and for that reason being intercepted by the police and the judiciary.” “.

They used “violence or the threat of violence to intimidate and coerce witnesses and co-defendants into changing their testimony and statements so as not to harm members of the criminal group.”

The group is also suspected of recruiting and paying “lawyers to accompany co-defendants and witnesses as their lawyers, but acting on behalf and in the interests of the criminal group.” “The criminal group supplied operatives with small quantities of heroin and/or cocaine as compensation for their work and to support and encourage their addiction.” If refused, the operatives showed reluctance or did not carry out assigned tasks in accordance with the orders and instructions received.

The 37 defendants range in age from 20 to 67, one is serving a prison sentence, another is in pre-trial detention, and others have previous convictions in other cases.