These soldiers thus exercised state authority as a form of coercion against the victims.
The ten GNR (National Republican Guard) officers arrested this Tuesday , following a major operation by the Judiciary Police against human trafficking, were working in uniform, monitoring and forcing migrants into forced labor under conditions of semi-slavery.
According to what CNN Portugal has learned, in several situations reported by testimonies from victims or third parties, the military personnel traveled in GNR (National Republican Guard) service uniforms to the agricultural properties where the victims were exploited, specifically in Cabeça Gorda, Beja.
These soldiers thus exercised the authority of the State as a form of coercion against the victims.
Ten GNR (National Republican Guard) officers and one PSP (Public Security Police) agent were arrested and searched at their homes and workplaces on Tuesday, as were six civilians who were targeted in the same operation by the Polícia Judiciária (Judicial Police) for a series of violent crimes related to the exploitation and enslavement by force, through a climate of terror to which they subject communities of Indian migrants working on agricultural properties in the Beja area, CNN Portugal has learned.
The Counterterrorism Unit had support from elements of other areas of the PJ (Judicial Police), with around two hundred inspectors on the ground - and the epicenter of the operation is the parish of Cabeça Gorda, on properties where victims are exploited in forced labor from sunrise to sunset, under the supervision and coercion and threat of the authority of the GNR (National Republican Guard) military personnel involved in the illegal immigration exploitation network.
In their spare time, members of this security force act as foremen on the ground for a criminal organization, which is, in fact, one of the crimes for which they are indicted. They also face charges of human trafficking, aiding illegal immigration, tax fraud, and money laundering – for the way they conceal the substantial illicit and undeclared profits from the forced labor to which they subject the victims.
The migrants, undocumented and blackmailed under threat of deportation to their countries by the GNR (National Republican Guard) military, live in subhuman conditions, with meager incomes and under police surveillance so that the network can extract maximum profit from their forced labor in the agricultural fields.
In a statement, the PJ (Judicial Police) reports that the searches took place in Beja, Portalegre, Figueira da Foz and Porto, and that "at issue is a criminal organization that controlled hundreds of foreign workers, most of whom were in an irregular situation in Portugal".
"Through temporary employment agencies created for this purpose, they took advantage of the vulnerability of these individuals, exploiting them, charging for accommodation and food, and keeping them under duress through threats, with several episodes of physical assaults," the statement reads.
According to the PJ (Judicial Police), those arrested are "suspected of facilitating the actions of the criminal group."
According to CNN Portugal, eight guards, a sergeant who was commanding the Matosinhos post, and an officer were arrested. As for the PSP agent, he had been on sick leave for a year.
The approximately two dozen detainees, including military personnel and civilians, will be brought before a court by the Public Prosecutor's Office and risk being remanded in custody.