The head of the Criminal Investigation section of the Loulé GNR has been detained for questioning over the arms and ammunition that went missing from the Tancos military base.
The Judicial Police today arrested Sergeant Lima Santos of the Loulé GR. Also detained was Colonel Luís Augusto Vieira, the Director General of the Military Police.
Altogether, five arrests so far have been made after eight new arrest warrants were issued. Suspicions embrace, "facts that may include crimes of criminal association, denial of justice, prevarication, falsification of documents, influence peddling, personal favoritism practiced by an employee, abuse of power, prescription, detention of prohibited weapon and arms trafficking ".
Sergeant Lima Santos was detained at his home by personnel from the Counter-Terrorism Unit.
Weapons and ammunition went missing in June last year from the Tancos military base in the district of Santarém. Three months later, the cache of weapons reappeared in a field near the arms depot, following an anonymous tip-off to the Loulé GNR.
The missing material was valued at €37,000. The embarrassment of losing weapons from a supposedly secure arms dump has affected the Minister of Defence and senior military ranks while mystery continues to surround the whole affair.
The Attorney General's Office and the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Judicial Police and the Military Police all are involved in this investigation which has involved interviewing more than 70 people.
With the arrest of a senior GNR officer and the Director General of the Military Police, the expectation is that the mysterious affair soon will be explained.
