On Tuesday, 24 January, about 60 armed policemen (members of the Civil Guard and the secret services) invaded the house where Gabriel Pombo da Silva and his companion Elisa Bernardo lived. They were violently awakened, handcuffed and separated. The police said they were looking for weapons and explosives but after eight hours of searching (with dogs and high-tech equipment), they found nothing. Gabriel was detained for 24 hours for “illegal possession and trafficking of arms and explosives and participation in an armed group”. He was released on bail but remains charged.
About three months ago, the couple met a self-proclaimed anarchist who told them about her substance problems and conviction for a molotov attack against a building in Vigo. Gabriel and Elisa agreed to help her by housing her for a week (at the beginning of the year), to help her in the worst phase of getting clean. After this brief period, the girl returned home … reappearing as informant in the present case. It’s true that this person had already been convicted: the police had found explosives in her house in 2013. She was sentenced to an 11-year prison sentence for terrorism, but her sentence was dramatically reduced to 2 years and then converted to parole. She had only been in prison for a few months.