Portugal’s Judicial Police (PJ) have seized five tonnes of cocaine from a container ship searched on Tuesday, 4 August, at the Port of Sines, in the Setúbal district located to the South of Lisbon, the police force announced today.
The operation, codenamed “Skydrop”, was carried out with the support of the Portuguese Navy and Air Force and resulted in the arrest of three people: two passengers who were “undocumented and in an irregular situation”, and a crew member “suspected of being involved in the criminal operation”.
The group is believed to have been involved in “bringing large quantities of drugs into mainland Europe” and has now been dismantled, according to the PJ. A conservative estimate for the street value of such a large shipment of cocaine sits at around 500 million euros, with that value increasing or decreasing slightly based on the location in Europe where the seized drugs were intended to be sold.
The container ship, which “originated from a Latin American country, was detected and intercepted approximately 640 nautical miles from Lisbon, equivalent to 1,185 kilometres, in extremely difficult conditions”, the PJ said. It was then escorted by the Navy to the Port of Sines, where it docked in the early hours of Tuesday.
The investigation had been under way since August as part of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre’s Narcotics unit (MAOC-N), “within the framework of international police cooperation and in close collaboration and coordination with the police and judicial authorities of the United Kingdom (National Crime Agency) and Spain (Policía Nacional)”.
Speaking to Portuguese journalists from the Lusa news agency, Rui Vasconcelos, commander of the Sines Port Harbourmaster’s Office, said the vessel left the Alentejo port today, 5 August, at 9.55am, with no issue.
According to VesselFinder, the container ship had previously docked at the Port of Colón in Panama before being diverted to Sines. Its current destination is Tangier, Morocco, where it is expected to arrive on Saturday.
Source: LUSA
Photo credit: LUSA
