More than 100 kilograms of cocaine were seized at the Port of Sines, during an operation to control a container from South America, announced the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority (AT).
The drug was contained in four sports bags hidden among the container's legitimate cargo, AT adds in a statement.
Cocaine would have a market value of around four million euros, having been handed over to the Judiciary Police.
The drug was detected during 'a non-intrusive control of a container', which had been selected 'under local risk analysis criteria'. The container was "misused" to introduce cocaine into Europe, and is "waiting for the right moment to be taken out and illegally introduced into the European Union".
In its communiqué, the AT explains that the powers of control and inspection of the EU's external borders that are assigned to it are exercised in "any circumstance 24 hours a day", even in the current situation of a state of emergency.
This technique has been widely used by drug traffickers in other international ports. “Due to its characteristics, it is difficult to detect, as it is specially designed to evade the usual risk analysis and assessment techniques used by the various world customs authorities”, says the AT.
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