PCC cocaine laboratory, Brazilian mafia, dismantled in Lourinhã.
The Judiciary Police dismantled the largest drug laboratory “ever discovered in Portugal, and one of the largest in Europe”, in a warehouse in Lourinhã. It was controlled by the Brazilian mafia of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital).
It was the “dismantling of the largest industrial laboratory of extraction, transformation and packaging of detected in Portugal, and one of the largest at European level”, announces the Judiciary Police (PJ) in .
The cocaine laboratory operated in Lourinhã, around 70 kilometers from Lisbon, and was operated by a PCC “cell” (), a , as stated in (CM).
Bananas hid drugs
The criminal group used shell companies to import bananas from South America, hiding the drugs in cargo.
Last May, the PJ had already seized at the port of Setúbal, a container coming from Colombia with almost a thousand kilos of . “Inside the container, around 20 tons of bananas were transported as legal cargo, with the drugs concealed at the bottom of cardboard boxes where the fruit was packaged”, highlights the PJ.
Now, more have been seized.”1,478.5 kilos of cocainethree firearms, large amounts of money, several light and heavy vehicles”, adds the police force.
The PJ also detained two Colombians and a Moroccan in flagrante delicto while “cooked” cocaine in a warehouse in São Bartolomeu dos Galegos, in Lourinhã, transforming the ‘coca’ paste into powder that is sold for consumption.
Four more Portuguese citizens were also detained after an investigation lasting around a year that was named “Operation Pacoba”.
The seized item was intended to be distributed throughout Portugal and other European countries.
It is already the fifth cocaine laboratory dismantled in a year
The PJ also highlights that “a highly organized criminal group which was dedicated to the introduction of large quantities of cocaine on the European continent”.
The investigation was carried out “in close collaboration and coordination with the police and judicial authorities of the Colombia (National Police), Spain (National Police) and USA (DEA – Drug Enforcement Administration, HSI – Homeland Security Investigations and CBP – Customs and Border Protection)”, also reveals the PJ.
The director of the National Unit to Combat Drug Trafficking (UNCTE) of the PJ, Artur Vaz, highlights that this “was the fifth laboratory processing plant dismantled by the PJ since December last year”, as quoted by the CM.
