The Portuguese Judicial Police arrested on Wednesday 35 people suspected of belonging to a criminal network that trafficked human beings to make them work in the fields of Baixo Alentejo, in the south of the country.
The detainees, Portuguese and foreign nationals aged between 22 and 58, are accused of human trafficking, criminal association, money laundering and document forgery, the police said in a statement reported by local media.
«The suspects are part of a criminal structure dedicated to the labor exploitation of immigrants, mostly recruited in their countries of origin, such as Romania, Moldova, India, Senegal, Pakistan, Morocco, Algeria, among others, to work in agricultural facilities,» says the police statement.
These agricultural facilities in which these people were exploited for labor exploitation are located in the Baixo Alentejo towns of Beja, Cuba and Ferreira, according to the Lusa agency.
Dozens of people would have been victims of this human trafficking network, according to the police investigation, which dates back to last year, the leaders of this criminal organization are members of several Romanian families, who had the support of some Portuguese.
