A couple who operated catering establishments in Sintra, Lisbon, were arrested on Tuesday for stealing money and valuables from customers when they became unconscious, after serving them drinks with psychotropic drugs, according to the PSP.

“The victims identified in the case file lost a total amount of 33,859 euros”, highlighted the PSP.

The PSP states that the investigation began after reports of several crimes of theft, in which the victims had ingested alcoholic beverages with benzodiazepines in certain catering establishments, which had the same owners in common.

The catering establishments where the crimes took place, located in the parishes of Mem-Martins and São Marcos, in Sintra, were then operated by a couple who, when they realized that the customers had large sums of money or valuables, served drinks with substances that put them “in a drowsy state, in which some lost 'consciousness', becoming unable to resist their goods or money being stolen from them”.

Customers, after being robbed, were found on the public road or in their vehicles, “in a state of obvious physical weakness or unconscious and were then transported to hospitals”, added the PSP.

The victims were admitted to hospitals due to drunkenness, but it was later found that they had high concentrations of benzodiazepines in their bodies, said the police.

One of the victims had to be resuscitated and a man was located at IC19, in the Rio de Mouro area, passed out inside the company vehicle where he works, “from where the suspects had stolen around 21,000 euros in volumes of tobacco and monetary amount”.

The PSP executed arrest warrants and search warrants both at the suspects' residence and at the two catering establishments they currently operate, in Tapada das Mercês (Sintra) and Quinta do Conde (Sesimbra).

During the searches, the PSP recovered and seized around 3,000 euros, 1,293 packs of tobacco (worth around 6,465 euros), 420 packs of electronic tobacco (worth around 2,100 euros), four mobile phones, a car, a 'tablet' and several drugs with benzodiazepines.