Kidnapping and Extortion of Portuguese Contractor Results in Arrests

A group kidnapped a contractor in December 2024 after luring him with a false job offer in Torres Vedras. The perpetrators held him for three hours and demanded a €40,000 payment from his family, claiming a debt for unfinished construction work. After the victim escaped, the group launched a second assault in April 2025 at the victim’s home in Leiria, again threatening and abducting the contractor and his wife. The suspects later received a €16,000 transfer before fleeing. In July 2026 the National Counter‑Terrorism Unit of the Polícia Judiciária detained two women and a man, aged 29 to 37, on charges of kidnapping, extortion, robbery and aggravated assault.

Police officials described the case as a “deliberate conversion of a civil dispute into violent criminal activity” and emphasized the seriousness of the coordinated attacks.