PJ police and Portugal’s secret services are already working on part of the extraordinary IS recruitment list revealed by Sky News today.
With no official confirmation that the list is genuine, authorities throughout Europe are nonetheless taking advantage of any part of it that has made its way online.
Expresso reporter Hugo Franco said Portugal will be doing its best to identify nationals on the list, as well as any foreigners “who could be living in Portugal”.
He told Sky it was “very probable” that Portuguese citizens would be included.
Indeed, Expresso has worked closely with Sunday Times in the past to expose five jihadi fighters ‘groomed’ in Leyton, UK, but originally from Portugal.
Sky News’ chief correspondent Stuart Ramsey has called the list – supplied by a so-called IS defector – “the best intelligence that has ever existed about Islamic State”. It has the potential “to bring the entire network down”, he said in the report that instantly went global.
Huge Franco stressed that it is still too soon to know whether the information is bonafide, but that it appears to come from good sources.
Of the 22,000 names involved, 5,000 are Westerners – the majority of which appear to be French, Franco added.
Diário de Notícias suggests it may take some time for the definitive list to make its way to Portugal, but in the meantime, authorities will be making the most of excerpts that can be found online.
Photo: Fábio Poças, Portuguese emigré groomed in London now believed to use the name Abdurahman Al Andalus
