21 Alleged Anonymous Activists Detained and Interrogated in Portugal; 7 still under arrest

It was 7AM when the portuguese Judicial Police entered 24 homes, looking for alleged Anonymous members. They found 21 of the people they were looking for and took them in for questioning, but not before seizing all their electronics and ransacking their homes. Such was the situation described by Sara Didelet, in declarations to Guilhotina.info, after she got a rude awakening this morning at her family home and had her computer, her boyfriend’s and mother’s along with 4 external hard drives seized and her room turned upside down.

Anonymous member during the 14th of November 2013 protests in front of Parliament

According to the Judicial Police, the operation designated C4R3T05 (yes, really) or “Caretos” (a type of mask used in traditional celebrations) aims to combat hacktivism and used 70 “highly specialized” employees to track down the Anonymous group members suspected of DDOS, defacing, hacking and leaking of sensitive sites such as the Prosecutor’s Ministry (producing a leaked list of 2.000 magistrate’s personal numbers and passwords), Public Security Police and Republican National Guard (the urban and rural police forces, of which they leaked the plates of undercover cars used in traffic operations), Patriarchy of Lisbon, the Popular Party, among others.

The Caretos. Ancestors to Anonymous?

The operation was one year in the making and already is of dubious results since, according to Sara Didelet and the testimonies of those who know her, she has no computer skills beyond the basics necessary to use a computer and the Internet but has been accused of cyber crimes.

Her connection to Anonymous is limited to managing two Anonymous Facebook pages, using an Anonymous mask once during a protest and liking the ideals of the group. She was even questioned if her real name, which she uses online, is some sort of nickname. These are sparse results for a one year investigation made by 70 highly specialized employees and suggests the Judicial Police is just interrogating people who have a public connection to Anonymous to see if anyone will give them something more to go on.

Another worrying aspect of the case is that people who divulged the actions of the Anonymous hacktivists are being considered instigators of said actions, calling to mind the repressive actions against journalists and users of social networks which are becoming ever more common across the world, as governments try to strangle the Internet and freedom of speech.