A series of house raids were carried out in the crackdown on violent crime, which was launched at around 7.15am on Monday morning and concluded at noon.
COMETLIS police spokesperson Sérgio Soares said PSP officers were backing up an operation spearheaded by PJ police detectives to ensure public order in the problematic estate. The run-down neighbourhood covers a vast area and also comprises shacks and make-shift homes.
News channel SIC reported the raids were related to an incident which took place in Porto Alto, Santarém, last Friday, in which a man was killed and a GNR officer was injured in a shootout.
The incident kicked off when three men in a car disobeyed a police stop operation and a car chase across the Vasco da Gama bridge ensued.
One of the three men in the fleeing vehicle was, according to newspaper Correio da Manhã, the head of a ring believed to have carried out dozens of violent robberies on vans transporting cigarettes.
Their car eventually crashed in Porto Alto and a shoot-out ensued as one of the men tried to flee the runaway vehicle and shot in the direction of the chasing GNR officers. One of the officers was hit three times, in the leg and arm.
The officers retaliated and shot the man, who died at the scene. The other two absconders, aged 21 and 24, were arrested. One of them had locked himself inside a nearby café and was later detained while the other was caught while trying to flee on foot.
Newspaper Correio da Manhã elaborated the PJ’s sting targeted assailants suspected of being involved in the armed hold-ups on cigarette-transport vans and who are thought to be accomplices of the men who were chased by GNR officers to Porto Alto.
The suspects are believed to be part of the ring behind a string of hits on tobacco distributors in the Leiria and Santarém areas.
PJ police reportedly requested backup from the PSP’s elite special intervention unit to help avoid reprisals connected to the death on Friday.
Three men were detained and taken to the PJ headquarters for identification as a result of Monday’s raid.