Portugal’s Tax and Customs Authority (AT) seized 240 kilos of cocaine in the Porto of Sines, Setúbal district, concealed in a container from the American continent and destined for another European country, it revealed on Monday.
In a statement, AT explained that the Sines Customs Delegation of Setúbal Customs made the seizure. The drugs were concealed “in a conventional load of lubricating oils (…) The legitimate cargo was packed in a 20-foot container, which was unloaded in Sines where it would be transhipped to another ship and transported to its final destination”.
But routine checking detected a sports bag hidden between the oil drums – and the rest is the reason for this news story… AT explains this ruse of using a legitimate load to get a consignment of drugs to its intended destination is known as the “rip-off method”.
Someone will have been aware of ‘where to look’ when the container ship reached its final port, and the sports bag would have been ‘quickly extracted’.
