Cocaine weighing eight kilos has been discovered in several pieces of clothing and the soles of various pairs of flip-flops in a passanger’s luggage at Lisbon Airport. The Polícia Judiciária (PJ) made the discovery last weekend when a search was carried out on a 40-year-old woman who had just arrived from Brazil. The operation was given the code name ‘Polichinelo’.
The cocaine, which had come from Brazil, “was handled by a normal courier but smuggled in using an unusual method for cocaine”, commented a source from the Central Judicial Office for the Investigation of Narcotics Trafficking (Direcção Central de Investigação do Tráfico de Estupefacientes da Judiciária), which was acting together with the Office for Customs and Excise (Direcção-Geral das Alfândegas e dos Impostos Especiais).
According to the PJ, the woman, of Cape Verdean nationality, had been under investigation for some time, suspected of smuggling “increasing quantities” of the drug into Portugal. This time, eight kilos of cocaine with a high level of purity was discovered hidden in clothing and in the soles of around a dozen pairs of flip-flops which she had in her luggage. She has been detained in custody awaiting trial while the police continue to investigate.
Heroin in Madeira
A 37-year-old man was apprehended on Monday in Funchal, Madeira, with 8,900 doses of heroin with a high level of purity. The man, a civil construction worker who has been in prison, was under surveillance for some months suspected of transporting the drug between the Continent and Funchal. If the heroin had not been confiscated, it would have had a street value of around 230,000 euros.
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