The case dates back to the night of the 31st of March this year, when the students, studying at the University of Porto were at the ‘Via Rápida’ nightclub until 06h00, were approached by two men in a street near the establishment.
The criminals allegedly pointed a knife and a pistol at the youths in order to extort money and valuables from them. In addition, the duo forced the students to walk to the neighborhood of Ramalde, where they were forced to hand over their bank cards and codes.
To ensure that the codes were correct, one of the robbers stayed more than an hour with the youths, during which time the other went to several ATMs to withdraw the money. The university students were released after the criminals cleaned them out of several hundred euros.
Porto’s Judicial Police took care of the occurrence, having, at the end of last week, arrested one of the criminals, a 28-year-old man who has already been convicted of drug trafficking and driving cars without a license. He is also a drug addict and believed to have carried out several thefts and robberies in the city of Porto; after being questioned by the judge of criminal investigation, he was placed in preventive detention.
The Judicial Police are still searching for the second suspect.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
