Narcotics police got lucky at the weekend when two British drug smugglers were forced to call for help after 12 hours marooned at sea, 40 miles south of Faro, with a 1.5 ton stash of Moroccan hashish hidden in the hull of their speedboat ‘Mary’.
Their plan, writes Correio da Manhã, had been to take the boat out of water in Vilamoura Marina, hoist it onto a trailer and head off into Northern Europe – where the drugs would be removed from the hull in a warehouse and then sold on to suppliers.
But the plan was scuppered by something as unpredictable as a faulty engine.
Indeed, the men had been bobbing about at sea in the cold and wind for half a day before they decided to risk calling for help.
PJ police are reported to have been watching the duo – both in their 50s and believed to be part of an international ring – for some time, so the rest was fairly simple.
As the crew was taken to Faro Hospital for treatment for hypothermia, police found not only the haul of drugs but €10,000 in cash on board.
A third crew member, a Brazilian, was also arrested and the three men were due to appear in court in Loulé today (Monday).
According to CM, the drug ring is based in Northern Europe and buys its hashish from Morocco. Further arrests are said to be imminent, both in Portugal and elsewhere.
