53-year-old skipper arrested
PJ police, with support of the Portuguese Navy, have intercepted a yacht on the high seas, suspected of being used to transport large quantities of cocaine between Latin America and Europe.
The 16-metre boat arrived under escort at Lisbon Naval Base this morning.
Its sole occupant and skipper, a 53-year-old man described for the time being as “a foreigner” has been arrested.
Searches of the boat yielded “significant quantities of cocaine”. The skipper now will be presented to a judge for initial questioning.
His arrest comes as part of “Operation Monaco”, “launched in recent days”, according to reports, by the PJ’s National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, in combination with the Navy.
Also involved in the investigation are the Drugs Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States, the Direction Nationale du Renseignement et des Enquêtes Douanières (DNRED) of France, and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre — Narcotics (MAOC-N) based in Lisbon.
