PJ police have ‘done it again’: they have intercepted a ‘narco-submarine’ (or ‘semisubmersible’ craft manufactured especially for drug smuggling) on the high seas, seizing just under 300 ‘bales of cocaine’.
A press conference giving more details of this operation has said that this was the largest apprehension of its kind in Portugal so far. For now we are not told the ‘value’ of the haul – which came to nine tonnes – the street value of which will run into several millions of euros.
The seizure took place on Friday, around 230 nautical miles from the Azores, says the PJ in a statement released today.
On board the ‘semisubmersible’ (that had set out from South America were four ‘foreign citizens’), who will now be in preventive custody. Information at the press conference suggests 35 bales of the drug were dropped ‘overboard’ and sank before police could recover them.
The interception was all the more impressive as it took place “in conditions of extreme danger and complexity, due to the current adverse meteorological conditions”, says the statement.
Dubbed ‘Adamastor’, the operation involved the PJ’s ‘national unit to combat drug trafficking’, with the support of the department of criminal investigation of the Azores, the Portuguese Navy and the Portuguese Air Force, in strict collaboration with United States Drug Enforcement, JIATF-S (the Joint interagency Task Force South), as well as the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom and MAOC-N (the Lisbon-based Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics).
The investigation continues under the auspices of the PJ, says the statement, in articulation with the various partner authorities of other countries.
Source: PJ/ SIC Notícias
