16 arrested in Alentejo, seven customs officials in Sines
Authorities’ crackdown on drug trafficking in Portugal has brought news of new arrests through the weekend, including those of five customs officials in Sines, purportedly bribed to look the other way by South American mafias.
The first arrests came in Aljustrel and Alcácer do Sal last Thursday (the announcement of which came only today).
GNR police detained a total of 13 men and three women as part of an investigation that has been ongoing for “around two years”, according to a statement.
The suspects, aged between 22 and 53, face crimes of criminal association, money laundering and possession of a prohibited weapon.
During the operation, which involved 160 military personnel, the GNR carried out 21 search warrants, namely 13 at homes, five in vehicles and three in establishments, in which over 3,000 doses of heroin, 2,197 doses of hashish, 2,155 doses of cocaine, eight canisters of nitrous oxide, six rifles, four pistols, three revolvers, three replica firearms, 18 air guns, three machetes and a dagger were seized.
The GNR also seized 30 extendable batons, 244 rounds of ammunition, five cars, three motorcycles, two scooters, two bicycles, an electric scooter and two bottles of ammonia.
The detainees will be presented for their first judicial interrogation at Ourique Judicial Court, in the district of Beja, today.
Meantime, PJ police returned to Sines as part of Operation Porthos carried out in February, arresting five customs officials (three of whom had been identified during searches carried out in February).
As reports today explain, the five customs inspectors (attached to the AT tax authority) are suspected of having helped South American cartels in the passage of cocaine through the ports of Lisbon, Setúbal and Sines, by ensuring that the containers containing the drug were not inspected.
“This power of decision-making was worth millions of euros”, writes Correio da Manhã today.
Video evidence in the possession now of the PJ shows one of the meetings between two of the customs officials and one of the traffickers. “Without knowing that they were being filmed”, the customs officials asked for €700,000 to allow a consignment of 1.3 tons of cocaine hidden among frozen squid that had arrived from Ecuador to leave the port of Lisbon, says the paper.
CM explains that back in February when several officials had already been identified by PJ inspectors, the public prosecutor’s office “preferred not to arrest them as suspects” for the aiding of drug trafficking. Four were arrested for “lesser crimes” – but ‘new evidence gathered by the investigation’ has led to these detentions.
All five suspects should be presented before a judge today, for initial questioning/ the deciding of bail measures.
According to reports, it is very possible that further detentions (at other ports) will follow in the coming days.
Among the trafficking networks identified in this scheme are Brazil’s largest mafia, PCC – Primeiro Comando Capital, which is already believed to have numerous members ‘infiltrated’ throughout Portugal, as well as Colombian cartels.
sources: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
