A criminal chronicle. The story of a ‘Madame’ and two police

How many massage houses in Portugal hide borders from modern times? It is to this question that authorities seek to answer, with investigations such as that involves 45 -year -old Hérica Duarte, alleged leader of a sexual exploitation network in Portugal since 2020 and pre -trial in October last year. The case also led to the arrest of two authority agents, accused of trafficking in persons, lenocinium and other crimes.

At the center of the investigation is a discreet building in Chiado, where a spa was announced. However, according to the prosecutor’s accusation (MP), last month’s date and that sunrise had access, the services provided there were far beyond massage. In the basement, women – mostly Brazilian and irregularly – served customers under the watchful eye of a charismatic and authoritarian ‘Madame’ from modern times, which would have a close relationship with one police and dated with another.
Hérica Duarte, Brazilian with Portuguese nationality, managed the alleged network and controlled the employees with the help of accomplices, surveillance chambers and subtle – or not – allusions to their police contacts. The case resembles an episode of the Law & Order series, including the alleged involvement of two PSP agents, then at the service of the Municipal Police. But in this ‘episode’ there is no warning that ‘any resemblance to reality is mere coincidence’, because, according to the MP, it is not fiction.
Already the lawyer of the two police, Jorge Henriques, 45, and Joel Lourenço, 42, considers that the allegations of the MP are just a bad script, based only on assumptions: Lopes Guerreiro has already requested the invalidity of the accusation and the opening of instruction, which he himself requires « in the non -pronunciation of the agents ».

The argument of the accusation
According to the MP, Hérica Duarte recruited Brazilian women with promises of employment in massage houses. Upon arrival, they were encouraged to prostitution, deprived of documents and with a debt of € 5,000 for the trip to Portugal, which would have been paid by the defendant.
Prostitution houses operated with suggestive names such as Teilla Spa, Seven Skirts or Nuriah Spa. The case thickens with the alleged involvement of police officers. The MP states that Jorge Henriques and Joel Lourenço « attended the spa of Chiado with the uniform » to intimidate and threaten women. “Notwithstanding the unlawful activity developed inside the establishment, they still frequented the space when they were on duty, remaining there to live with Hérica Duarte and consuming alcoholic beverages that it offered them and, on some occasions, the defendant Jorge Henriques enjoyed the sexual services provided by women contracted by the defendant Hérica, without making any payment, as a counterpart of his own Services »read in the prosecution.
At issue are serious crimes such as trafficking in people, aggravated threat, threat, threat with weapon and abuse of power. And the process are listening, videos and testimonies of various victims. The MP also states that Joel Lourenço would have a « love relationship » with Hérica Duarte, which he had known since 2023, and that Jorge Henriques was an old acquaintance of the defendant.

The defense version
Lopes Guerreiro, a police lawyer, admits that the case looks like a police series episode, but says the prosecution for agents is just that: fiction. “This order of prosecution is reminiscent of a sponte painting in which the reader is confronted with a scattered set of facts (without any criminal resonance) that, seen in isolation and in close proximity, nothing reveals an illicit. And when visualized distant and jointly they are likely to convey a grossly inconsistent and cloudy image of the practice of whatever of lawful and/or illicit, ”he writes in the instructional opening request.
About Joel Lourenço, Lopes Guerreiro states that « the agent was never, uniformed or uniformed, in the spaces in question », but recognizes that the agent had, « on one occasion », sex with Hérica Duarte in the housing of his in Sacavém and not at Casa do Chiado, as stated in the accusation.
As for Jorge Henriques, the defense admits that the agent was in space, but only to ‘urinate’ or ‘rest’ from the work shift, denying any involvement in the operation of the SPA or the acts of intimidation. About the alleged threat with weapon, argues that in the video presented as proof by the MP, it is not possible to identify either the agent or the weapon.

No victim recognized Jorge Henriques as the author of threats, argues Lopes Warrior, saying that everything is the result of the accuser’s « fertile imagination », who « mixed facts with proof and means of obtaining proof » to support a narrative.

Unlike an episode of law & order, this case is not resolved in 45 minutes. It is necessary to wait for the decision of the criminal instruction judge about the opening of instruction and, accepting it, to know that crimes and defendants will follow for trial. Hérica Duarte has been preemptively prey since October 2024. Jorge Henriques and Joel Lourenço benefited last March of a reduction in coercion measures and are now under house arrest, watched by electronic means.

It should also be noted that Lopes Guerreiro is already ‘beaten’ in media cases, being a lawyer for two of the Fugitives of Jewish Valley, Rodolfo Lohrmann and Fábio Loureiro, and having defended Rómulo Costa, the Portuguese convicted of supporting the Islamic State.