Portugal charges man with espionage for stealing NATO officer’s digital devices

A man who allegedly stole a computer and iPad belonging to a NATO official visiting Lisbon has been charged with attempted espionage, Portugal’s Public Prosecution Service confirmed Thursday.

The defendant, a 23-year-old Portuguese citizen, is alleged to have committed the theft in February 2025 during a NATO planning conference for the world’s largest military robotics exercise at Lisbon Naval Base on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. Prosecutors say the defendant devised a plan to target attendees, reasoning they might be carrying sensitive material that could be “attractive to foreign intelligence services outside of NATO, such as those of the Russian Federation.”

Using a fake name, the man checked into a hotel where NATO personnel were staying and convinced a staff member to let him into a room assigned to a Swedish naval official temporarily assigned to the Alliance. He was apprehended by Portuguese police after the devices were reported stolen — but the Swedish official’s computer and iPad were nowhere to be found.

According to prosecutors, the defendant offered to lead police investigators to the “agents” he claimed had hired him to steal the goods. But just as the meeting with his alleged handlers was due to take place, the man escaped. Hours later he was seen arriving at the Russian Embassy in Lisbon, where he allegedly tried to sell what was on the devices to an embassy employee. The man “was unsuccessful in achieving this goal,” prosecutors noted, and coughed up the missing devices when police detained him shortly thereafter.

Under interrogation, the man claimed to belong to “a criminal organization dedicated to acts of espionage and violation of state secrets,” and named 11 individuals — among them a police inspector — as members of the spy ring. But a yearlong criminal probe has now concluded the alleged espionage network doesn’t exist, and that the defendant invented it to “divert the focus of the investigation” from himself.

In addition to attempted espionage, prosecutors accused the defendant of aggravated theft, making false statements and possession of child pornography. Two other men have been accused of aiding in the theft but haven’t been charged with espionage.