Seven of the 15 accused in the Teia Dorada case were sentenced to prison terms in the Aveiro court

This Friday, the Aveiro court sentenced seven of the 15 defendants in the Teia Dorada case to prison terms in connection with dozens of violent robberies committed in 2022, mainly in nursing homes in the districts of Aveiro and Coimbra.

The defendants are charged with dozens of crimes, such as robbery, attempted and completed theft, resisting and coercing an employee, driving without a lawful license, possession of a prohibited weapon, entering a place not open to the public, causing damage and receiving.

During the announcement of the ruling, the presiding judge stated that the evidence presented at the trial was all circumstantial, since none of the victims could identify the defendants, given the way they acted.

The most serious sentences – from seven years to nine months and 16 years of imprisonment – were applied to five defendants who were in pre-trial detention and had committed robberies and thefts.

The panel also imposed another effective sentence of six-and-a-half years’ imprisonment on a businessman convicted of three offenses of theft as a moral accomplice and three offenses of receiving.

A jewelery shop owner who purchased gold and jewelery stolen by the accused was given a suspended sentence of three years and two months for six receiving offences.

There were also two defendants who were punished with fines of 3,100 euros and 1,750 euros each for acquisitive crime.

The remaining six defendants were acquitted of all crimes of which they were accused.

In addition to the prison sentences, the main defendants were ordered to pay approximately 20 thousand euros in compensation to several victims.

The court also announced the loss to the state of almost all the amounts seized in the process, rejecting the request formulated by the Prosecutor’s Office (MP) for the loss of benefits in the amount of 615 thousand euros, which corresponds to the world minimum value. from the assets and valuables deducted by the defendants.

After reading out the decision, the judge also said that defendants in pre-trial detention will retain their mandatory status until the deadline for filing an appeal expires, also stating the particular complexity of the process.

The beginning of the meeting was marked by several appeals filed by the lawyer of one of the accused, which ended with a statement of the fact of suspicion addressed to the presiding panel considering the case.

Operation Golden Web was the result of an investigation carried out by the Criminal Investigation Department of the PSP Aveiro, which ended on July 10, 2022 with the arrest of seven people.

During the operation, dozens of searches were carried out in several municipalities of the districts of Aveiro, Coimbra and Porto in homes, commercial establishments and vehicles, 28 weapons (12 of them firearms), hundreds of cartridges and ammunition, and seven cars were seized. and about 300 grams of drugs (hashish and marijuana).

Hundreds of stolen items were also confiscated, including gold coins, dozens of electrical and other construction tools, various agricultural support equipment, building materials, large and small household appliances, electronic devices and food, as well as approximately 200 thousand euros. bills.

In less than six months, the accused carried out 36 robberies of houses, commercial establishments, company premises, construction sites and other premises in several municipalities of the districts of Aveiro and Coimbra.

The targets were mainly elderly people who, due to the inherent physical frailty of their age, as well as the fact that they lived alone, would certainly not have been able to resist from the very beginning.