Quantity – mammoth 5.2 tons of cocaine in a sailboat in Portugal

Portuguese authorities seized 5.2 tonnes cocaine from a Spanish-flagged sailboat off the coast Portugal, during a joint operation, which led to the arrest of two Spaniards and a Peruvian, as announced today.

The seizure of 183 packages of cocaine, which authorities transported to the Portuguese naval base on the southern outskirts of Lisbon, is “the largest seizure in Portugal in the last 15 years,” said the director of its judicial police. Portugal Luis Neves.

“This is a severe blow to those who want to flood Europe with cocaine,” he said in a press conference on the operation, which was held in co-operation with the Spanish authorities and with the support of the Federal Anti-Corruption Authority. Drugs and the British Crime Authority.

Navy and air force operation

The three men, who were arrested on Saturday with the help of the Portuguese navy and air force, are suspected of involvement in a powerful criminal network that organizes the trafficking of large quantities of cocaine between Latin America and Europe.

Among the members of the network is a trafficker who is known to the authorities and “against whom an arrest warrant has been issued” since March, the authorities said in a press release.

“Cooperation between the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula” allows us to send a clear message to traffickers: it will not be easy to smuggle drugs into Spain and Portugal, “said the head of the Central Drugs Brigade. Spanish police, Commissioner Antonio Martεnez Duarte.

Last Friday, Spanish authorities announced the seizure of 2.5 tonnes of cocaine from the sailing ship “Goldwasser” off the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.

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