A chief inspector described as working “for many years” with the PJ’s drugs squad was taken into custody by his own police force on Tuesday, suspected of corruption, money-laundering and trafficking. Also detained was a former PJ coordinator, now retired, and suspected of similar offences. Sábado broke the news, suggesting more arrests would follow with the focus on a massive network smuggling “large quantities of cocaine”.
In fact, Sábado named the chief inspector as Ricardo Macedo, and his former coordinator as Dias Santos.
The investigation dubbed Operation Achilles has taken years to unravel because of its complexity.
According to papers picking up on the details, the men are thought to have “received bribes from important trafficking networks to supply privileged information and create diversion tactics, within the PJ, that allowed large quantities of cocaine to be smuggled into Portugal over the years without coming to the notice of police forces”.
Tuesday’s operation was led by the PJ’s UNCC (national anti-corruption unit), in collaboration with the UNCTE (drug squad) and DCIAP (central department of investigation).
As many 15 people are thought to have been arrested on various charges, all connected to both corruption and trafficking.
Ages of those arrested range from 39 to 61, writes national tabloid Correio da Manhã.
