Portuguese military police Head arrested over arms depot theft

The director general of the Portuguese Military Judiciary Police (MJP) Luis Vieira was arrested on Tuesday over an arms depot theft last year, Portuguese Lusa News Agency reported.

Three members of paramilitary police (GNR) and a civilian were among those detained.

In a statement, the Attorney General's Office said that the police carried out searches in various locations in the Greater Lisbon, Algarve in the south, Porto in the north and Santarem in central Portugal.

The detainees are suspicious of committing such crimes as trafficking of arms, criminal association, falsification of documents, and abuse of power, the statement said.

Theft of weapons from an arms depot in Tanco, some 130 km north of Lisbon, which had since been shut down, was unveiled at the end of June 2017 on an anonymous tip-off. Among the stolen weapons were hand grenades, anti-tank rockets, plastic explosives and a large quantity of ammunitions.

In October, the MJP recovered almost all the stolen weapons, except for nine-millimeter ammunitions.