Southern Portuguese Crime Rate Increasing

Portugal officially is one of the most crime free areas of Europe, along with Spain. But individual areas such as the Algarve are known magnets for the wrong elements in society.

Above: The photofit of the suspected vagrant abducter of Madeline ("Maddie") McCann produced by her parent's private investigation team.

Pedophiles & Vagrants
The Algarve has been frequently described as the European capital of Pedophiles; there are around 150 expatriate British convicted pedophiles alone in the Algarve and certainly many more from other countries given news stories (e.g. Swiss Pedophile Story). The only reason we know there are around 150 British pedophile ex-cons in the Algarve is because of the terrible Madeline McCann case; British police gave Portuguese police a list of known / convicted British pedophiles in the Algarve because Portugal is one of only two countries in Europe without a sex offenders’ register. Yes, 150 ex-con British paedophiles alone; with pedophiles from other countries, the total number in the south of Portugal could well be in the thousands. The fact is, if you have young children, the Algarve may well be one of the least favorable places to take your family.

The Madeline McCann case, apart from giving the Algarve police a bad name for what many say is a badly conducted and repeatedly botched investigation (e.g. one former police officer went on TV 3 days after Maddie’s abduction and claimed the McCanns were “swingers” without evidence; two Algarve police chiefs have now been replaced over this affair, one for criticizing the British police; even Portugal’s chief of police is critical of the investigation and in particular for making the McCanns “aguidos” or official suspects), also highlights another problem associated with the Algarve; vagrants.

The McCanns it seems and popular belief is that a vagrant took little Madeline McCann for money, to give her to pedophiles. A photofit of this alleged / suspected vagrant has been produced as well as witness accounts of seeing someone matching his description passing a young girl to other people. Vagrants from around the Mediterranean have come to the Algarve because of the wealth that is there. Vagrants are often even mostly homeless people down on their luck looking for someone without financial concerns to help them out; but an element are criminal, generally through addiction to alcohol and narcotics. Unfortunately the Algarve has in this respect become a victim of its own success.

Criminal Gangs
The Algarve has seen a recent influx of both British and Irish drug ring bosses as Spain clamps down upon them (see: UK Guardian Article). Unfortunately apart from bringing associated crime into the area, the Irish (often former Republican Irish terrorists) and British mobsters hate and try to kill each other. In addition, 2005 saw the advent of beach robbery gangs in Portugal, where large numbers of disaffected youths, often second generation Portuguese from African / Brazilian parents, would raid and rob beach users on mass. The violent attacks involving expatriate-owned villas by gangs from Eastern Europe and Africa in Spanish luxury villa areas are forecast to increasingly migrate into Portugal’s Algarve.

Fiscal Crime
Tax dodges! Portugal has to be the unofficial EU capital of tax cheats where even lawyers (advogados) and accountants ask clients for payment in cash to avoid paying taxes. But be warned, the Portuguese authorities are clamping down on tax fraud, have their own Tax Police and know they have to solve the problem as their EU membership is forcing it. It used to be accepted that everyone, but everyone cheated on taxes in Portugal, so the government, which needed to collect taxes of course, slapped de-facto luxury taxes (exorbitant registration fees) on things like cars, making Portugal one of if not the most expensive places to buy a car in the EU! The problem is the EU is taking legal action against Portugal to stop overcharging people. Portugal knows it has until around 2011 to reform its taxation system to ensure people pay the correct amount of income, sales and property taxes so they can afford the inevitable EU decision regarding hidden taxes on things like cars.

OK, so tax dodgers may still get away with their crimes in Portugal right now, but in ever-decreasing numbers and those people, including foreigners / expatriates who get caught in the act can expect punitive fines even jail. If you buy something taxable but without a tax receipt knowingly, you are committing tax fraud. If you try and sell something (an Algarve villa for example: see Real Estate dodges) and don’t have tax receipts for the work you had done, at best what you saved in sales tax you almost certainly will pay more in capital gains tax as you will not be able to offset those costs.