A HIGH speed boat, named Zenith, notorious for drug trafficking in Spain and Portugal, has been found abandoned at the marina in Vila Real do Santo António.
The Policia Judiciária (PJ) announced that they had seized the boat on January 12. Algarve authorities have been working with the Spanish police in recent months tracking the boat, which is suspected to have transported huge amounts of cocaine into the region.
More than 1.3 kilos, believed to have been transported by Zenith, was seized in Portugal between September 28 and October 7 last year, resulting in 11 arrests of Portuguese citizens suspected of being involved in the trafficking network.
According to the police, the boat was regularly used to access the Iberian peninsular, transporting large amounts of cocaine, originating from South America, often via the coast of Africa.
It is also believed that the boat transported the majority of cocaine seized in the north of Portugal during 2006.
In the days leading up to the seizure, Spanish police had broken into the drug trafficking network that owned the boat at their base in Spain.
They detained 28 suspects of Spanish and Colombian descent.
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