A professional diver has uncovered a package containing 34 kilos of hashish near Albufeira Marina. According to the head of the Albufeira GNR, Captain António Matias, the hashish was discovered at approximately two metres depth, above an abandoned fishing trap. It is believed that the diver, a 28-year-old engineer currently residing in Lisbon, became entangled with the drug and brought it up to the surface. Amazed at his discovery, the diver then alerted police who confirmed that the package, wrapped in plastic and cellophane, contained drugs. Officers quickly surmised that the drug had not been in the water for a long time, carried out further investigations of the area, but did not discover any further traces of the drug.
There has been a spate of seizures of hashish in the region recently. On July 23 last year, judicial police seized two packets of hashish, weighing a total of 66 kilos, in the same area of the Albufeira Marina. In December, officers dismantled a Portuguese and Spanish drug ring and seized 135 kilos of hashish en route to Lisbon from the Algarve area and, in a separate operation the same month, Faro police seized 1.8 tonnes of the drug and arrested members of another drug network.
