Tiago Petinga / Lusa
The operation was launched without prior communication to the PJ, which was caught by surprise. PSP guarantees that it had approval from the Public Ministry.
The PSP seized around six tons of hashish, firearms and detained seven suspects in an operation to combat drug trafficking that has been taking place since Friday in the greater Lisbon area.
The investigation, which had been ongoing for several months, culminated in a megaoperation which extended from the Greater Lisbon area to the municipality of Palmela. Most of the drugs were found in a warehouse in Seixal, where the boats, speedboats, used to transport cargo across the Tagus River were located. The speedboats, similar to those used in illegal clam harvesting, will have been used to bring hashish, from North Africa, to national territory. Part of the drug was destined for the Portuguese market and the rest would be sent to other European countries.
The operation is not just any operation. It is, according to , the PSP’s biggest seizure ever. But it also happened… illegally.
The operation was launched without prior communication to the Judiciary Police (PJ)which constitutes a violation of , which determines that all actions related to the fight against drug trafficking must be previously transmitted to the National Unit to Combat Drug Trafficking of the PJ. The law gives the Judiciary the exclusive competence to coordinate and centralize information in this matter, precisely to avoid parallel investigations and the risk of duplication of efforts between police forces.
The PJ, according to Público, was taken by surprise with this mega-operation carried out in his absence.
When confronted, the PSP spokesperson, deputy superintendent Sérgio Soares, justified his action by stating that investigations often begin with small cases of trafficking — the PSP’s own competence — and end up revealing international networks. In these cases, he explained, the Public Ministry chooses to keep the investigation under the responsibility of the PSP, even when the scale of the crime increases.
“In these situations, as the investigation began to be carried out by us, the Public Prosecutor’s Office continues to delegate the investigation to us”, said the official, who sent additional explanations about compliance with the protocols to a press conference scheduled for Tuesday.
The operation, which should end at the end of this Monday, was launched by the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the Public Security Police, through the Criminal Investigation Division, with the reinforcement of several PSP capabilities.
“For now, it is worth highlighting the seizure of several tons of hashish, several firearms, the arrest of several suspects, the seizure of hundreds of thousands of euros in cash, speedboats and their engines and motor vehicles,” a PSP source told Lusa.
The detainees will undergo their first judicial interrogation on Monday for the application of coercive measures. As soon as the police investigations are completed and coercive measures are applied by the judicial authority, the PSP will present the results of the operation to the media at a press conference.
