The Court of Praia has ordered the preventive detention of 44 suspects detained as part of a mega-operation carried out jointly by the National Police of Cape Verde and the judicial police, aimed at the wave of crime that has swept the capital of Cape Verde.
In a statement released this Monday, the Attorney General’s Office cites that the operation, which mobilized 370 police officers on Thursday in two blocks in the center of Praia, was aimed at “facts that may be part of the commission of crimes related to aggravated murder, attempt, gang or gang, theft, aggravated theft, injury, death threats, arms and drug trafficking.”
He adds that “the suspected, exposed or accused live in Achada Santo António” and that this operation was carried out “as part of the investigation and after the operation carried out in December 2022.”
During this operation, the Office of the Public Prosecutor ordered the arrest of 35 people, in addition to detention at the scene of the crime, and facilitated the issuance of search and seizure warrants in several residences, in particular in the Brazilian and Achada Riba districts in the center of Praia.
“Following the execution of warrants in a joint operation of the National Police and the Judicial Police, in which the public prosecutor, the custodian of the case materials, participated, five persons suspected of committing criminal offenses were also detained at the crime scene,” the Prosecutor General’s Office clarifies.
Since Thursday, 50 defendants have undergone their first judicial interrogation, including, in addition to 35 arrested at the scene of the crime and five detained at the scene of the crime, ten were already in preventive detention in connection with other proceedings.
According to the prosecutor’s office, 44 defendants have been placed on pre-trial detention.
The same communiqué recalls that, by order of the Attorney General of the Republic of December 12, 2022, a group of magistrates from the State Ministry and units of the National Police and the Judicial Police was created, “with the aim of the wave of crime that has swept the city of Praia”.