The mayor of Gaia is one of 12 defendants in Operation Babylon. Seven people were arrested

The mayor of Vila Nova de Gaia, Eduardo Vitor Rodriguez, is one of the defendants in the Operation Babylon case, in which seven arrests were made on Tuesday and real estate projects worth about 300 million euros are being investigated.

A judicial source told Lusa news agency on Tuesday that the mayor of Gaia (PS) is one of the defendants in the trial – in addition to seven arrests – he is suspected of alleged favoritism in hiring staff and companies.

The news that the Mayor of Gaia has been appointed as an argument in this process was circulated tonight by an online newspaper. Observeradding that during the searches, the joint venture confiscated a mobile phone from the mayor, as well as various documents.

As part of Operation Babylon, the Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Gaia Patroquinio Azevedo (PS), in charge of urban planning and soil policy, urban licensing, municipal works and municipal roads, is “suspected of receiving too many gloves per 120,000 people.” euro through his lawyer” also detained, “which will bridge the gap with two real estate businessmen also detained,” another source connected to the investigation explained to Luce.

The two businessmen arrested are Fortera Group CEO and founder Elad Dror and Paulo Malafaya, who have already been arrested as part of “Operation Vórtex”, in which former Espinho mayor Miguel Reis is in pre-trial detention. .

Also arrested were two employees of the Council of Porto, one of them the head of the department of the urban area and the other with connections to this department, as well as a senior technician of the Regional Directorate of Culture of the North.

It is planned that the seven detainees will attend the first judicial interrogation since Wednesday, in the Porto Criminal Court, for enforcement measures.

“Operation Babylon aims to disrupt the rules and regulations of city licensing processes in favor of promoters associated with projects of high density and scale, involving real estate interests in the order of 300 million euros, by offering and accepting monetary compensation,” the Court explained. police (PJ) in a statement.

During the police operation, according to the GPO, 55 searches were carried out in residential and non-residential premises in various regions of the country, in municipalities and various public services, as well as in companies associated with the urban universe.

The councils of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, as well as Metro do Porto, were the three targeted locations for searches.

“At this stage, 12 defendants have already been appointed, along with the detainees, a politician. [vice-presidente da autarquia de Gaia]two municipal employees, an employee of the Northern Regional Directorate of Culture, two businessmen and a liberal professional accused of crimes of obtaining or giving undue advantages, active and passive corruption, evasion of official duties and abuse of an official or person holding political office ,” P.J. said.

The municipality of Gaia has previously guaranteed that “it appears that all elements have been provided”. [à PJ] and that Mayor Eduardo Vitor Rodríguez (PS) “expressly instructed services to provide all the elements necessary for legal investigations.”

According to this autarchy, “problems have been properly documented to ensure that services are fully available to cooperate with justice and investigation.”

In a statement late in the morning, the Porto City Council said that PJ’s searches of the municipal urban planning services are not targeting the municipality, but private companies with urban processes to be handled there.

In addition, the municipality confirmed that the SP analyzed two mobile phones without specifying who they belong to.

Earlier, a source from the Chamber of Porto confirmed that the cell phones of urban adviser Pedro Bagaña and the head of the urbanism department were confiscated.