A police spokesman has confirmed that officers have made the largest seizure of counterfeit credit cards in Portugal in recent years. Officers from the judicial police have arrested four people in Coimbra in a credit card fraud investigation, code-named Operation Eldorado.
In total, 56 high quality fake cards were confiscated, as well as a range of luxury items and 10,000 euros in cash. The fraudsters, a couple and two men, were arrested following a tip-off from the Operational Support and Security Services for Unicre, the international credit card company. Unicre staff became suspicious as the gang were attempting to purchase as much merchandise as possible in a short space of time. They were preparing to leave Coimbra, and it is believed that their next stop was to have been Porto.
The gang members, said to be in their 20s and 30s, were travelling with false passports. They had been in the country for four days, during which they are accused of committing ‘multiple crimes’ in Coimbra and Lisbon, using the credit cards to buy jewellery, digital cameras and designer clothes, among other items.
