Vehicles were on route to United Arab Emirates
PJ police have seized five high-powered top-of-the-range vehicles, stolen from Canada, and dispatched by sea, with the United Arab Emirates as their final destination.
The vehicles (no identifications given) were inside two containers unloaded at the port earlier this week.
In a statement, the PJ’s Setúbal Criminal Investigation Department said the seizures followed a police operation carried out as part of “a request for cooperation from the authorities in the Canadian city of Hamilton”.
No arrests appear to have yet been made.
The cargo manifest for the two containers carrying the vehicles “indicated completely different goods”, such as car and caterpillar parts, says the PJ.
The statement added that it will continue this investigation alongside Canadian counterparts in a bid to find “the perpetrators”
This kind of theft is unfortunately relatively common in Canada. A year ago, a similar shipment was foiled, this time transporting vehicles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from other parts of the country (Toronto and Halton areas) to Dubai. The vehicles were reportedly stolen in early 2023, when as many as 24 luxury vehicles, including a Rolls Royce, were also shipped to Dubai, but later intercepted by police in Morocco.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
sources: LUSA/ PJ/ globalnews.CA
