Portugal: Borman Case

The main defendant in the Borman case, Ghenadie Foslocea, has been sentenced to 18 years in jail in Portugal.

Foslocea, a Moldavian, was sentenced for criminal association, leading a gang, kidnapping, extortion, possession of illegal weapons and aiding and abetting illegal immigration, among others.

Two other defendants, Roman Slut and Anatolie Nicolae, were sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and the three had all their property confiscated by the Portuguese state.

Foslocea’s group, called the Borman gang, ran an operation which imported immigrants from the Ukraine and Moldavia into Portugal, and systematically exploited them. The case has caused particular revulsion among the Portuguese, who themselves have been a nation of emigrants, because the notion that one can exploit one’s own countrymen overseas is totally foreign to the country.

This, and other, cases, have greatly affected the high esteem in which the ex-USSR countries were held in Portugal, prior to the wave of immigration and the subsequent exposure of many such cases of extortion, wounding and even murder, for those immigrants who do not pay a percentage of their salary to the Mafia.

The behaviour of these eastern Mafia gangs is much publicised in the Portuguese press, which tell horror stories such as that of a Ukrainian man who had both legs broken in front of colleagues, to serve as an example for those who do not pay these extortionists their due. The Portuguese justices system has decided to come down as hard as possible on these evil leeches, who will encounter the enmity of the Portuguese inmates in jail.

Crimes against women and children and exploitation of compatriots and friends are particularly frowned upon in Portuguese society.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru