The Judiciary Police seized about 1300 kilos of cocaine in an operation carried out in the Eastern Algarve, close to the border with Spain. This is one of the biggest seizures of this heavy drug carried out this year in Europe, and it is "certainly the biggest in recent years in Portugal", according to the director of the southern territorial unit of PJ Luís Mota Carmo.
In the operation, the result of a collaboration between the Southern Directorate of the PJ and the National Police Corps of Spain, nine people were also arrested: the three men who were transporting the drugs, in as many cars, still on national territory, and another six people , in Spain, in the areas of Huelva and Seville.
Of the detainees, seven were Spaniards (six men and one woman) and two were Moroccans, who had official residence in the Netherlands. Together, "they formed an organization dedicated to drug trafficking," whose core elements the two police forces believe they had detained.
The details of this operation were announced this Wednesday at a joint press conference between the PJ and the National Police Corps (CNP), which brought together Luís Mota Carmo and Cirilo Durán, superior head of the CNP in Murcia.
At the meeting with journalists, Luís Mota Carmo revealed that the drug seized was pure, which means that the amount of drug that would be sold, at the end of the chain, would be «two or three times higher», since the drug would still be "cut".
Cirilo Durán, on the other hand, estimated that the value of the sale of the drug, when final consumption, could reach «80 million euros», in the neighboring country, similar numbers, with regard to Portugal.
Indicative numbers, as pointed out by both those responsible, since this drug would, for the most part, be sold in Northern and Central European countries. Portugal would be, it seems, just the entry point for cocaine, which was already being transported to Spain when the seizure was made.
According to the head of the Southern Directorate of the PJ, the many loads of drugs that were piled up in one of the rooms at the institution's headquarters, in Faro, were found not only in vehicles, but also in a warehouse, located in the Sotavento area, in a location that Luís Mota Carmo did not want to reveal.
The investigation that allowed this "significant" seizure began more than a year ago, in Portugal. Later, the PJ and the CNP got in touch and realized that they were investigating the same network and joined forces to dismantle it.
From there, the investigation focused on catching suspects in the act of committing a crime and seizing a significant amount of drugs, which ended up happening.
On the other side of the border, the National Police Corps waited for the operation to advance in Portugal, to immediately arrest the remaining elements of the network already identified, who had been under surveillance for a long time.
Cirilo Durán also made a point of stressing the PJ's willingness to collaborate with the Spanish authorities. A cooperation that would have been decisive for the outcome of the operation, since the members of the group would feel “safe in Portugal, as they did not suspect that the Portuguese police were also investigating them”.
Both officials also considered that "this case is an example of what international cooperation should be," between police forces.
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