The 10 tons of hashish caught "in the last days" by the Portuguese Judiciary Police, aboard a vessel, "out of the Strait of Gibraltar", came from Morocco and was destined for an "African country in the Mediterranean basin".
The operation of the Portuguese authorities, coordinated by the PJ, it had the participation of the Navy, through the marines, who boarded the vessel on the high seas, and the Air Force, through an aircraft equipped with night surveillance equipment, which followed "at a distance" for "12 hours". the boat where the drugs were being transported, "from the North of Morocco, in international waters", revealed FAP Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Costa.
At a press conference at Ponto Naval de Portimão, where the seized boat was taken and where the drugs are being unloaded, under heavy police surveillance, Artur Vaz, coordinator of the National Unit for Combating Narcotics Traffic (UNCTE), revealed that the investigation had been going on for a year.
Operation “Levante” culminated in the seizure of a fishing vessel transformed into a Dutch-flagged pleasure boat that was carrying the drugs. Six men were also arrested, two of whom were Portuguese, and the others of nationalities that the official did not want to reveal, for being able to "challenge the investigations still in progress".
On the vessel, 333 bales of drugs were seized, which were stored in a compartment. The hashish was being transported from Morocco to another country in North Africa, located in the Mediterranean, from which it would then be “distributed to other countries, including several European countries”.
The approach was made in international waters, by elements of the Portuguese Fuzileiros. The men aboard the hash-laden boat did not resist, according to Commander Carvalho Pinto, Director of the Center for Maritime Operations (Comar).
Asked whether the traffickers had weapons, Carvalho Pinto said that, "if they were armed, they didn't have time to sketch out any reaction."
The six detainees, aged between 20 and 61, are suspected of being part of a "criminal organization with a transnational dimension with strong support in Portugal".
This drug seizure, with an estimated weight of 10 tons, represents more than all the narcotics caught last year in Portugal. However, Artur Vaz, coordinator of the UNCTE, underlined that "the operation is worth not only for the quantities seized, but for the dismantling of the criminal entity that is behind this traffic".
The operation is the result of an investigation by UNCTE and has the collaboration of Europol, the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center – Narcotics (MAOC-N), Spanish, French, Dutch and Greek authorities.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação
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