Following hot on the heels of the horrific mid-flight death of a drug mule who flew out of Lisbon with 80 pellets of cocaine in his stomach, a 33-year-old man has been arrested flying into the capital’s airport with 5kg of the drug packed away in two pieces of hand-luggage.
The haul, with a market value of around €340,000, was possibly en-route for Spain.
Diário de Notícias reports that police are investigating – and that they were aware of the drugs’ impending arrival.
PJ agents were posted at the airport as the Nigerian-born “postman” touched down from São Tomé e Principe.
It is not a “usual” drug route, adds the paper, thus investigations now will open up more ‘new ground’ in the authorities’ knowledge of how Portugal fits in with Europe’s trafficking underworld.
Meantime, the “postman” – whose nationality is Spanish – remains in police custody.
He arrived in Lisbon on Monday – hours after a younger Brazilian man died in excruciating agony has he acted as a “drug mule”, carrying €56,000 worth of cocaine from Portugal to Dublin, Ireland on an Aer Lingus flight on Sunday.
Contrary to the dead man’s modus operandi, the 33-year-old transported his haul in two rucksacks, one of which he carried by hand as he wore the other on his back.
DN adds that the “postman” had no other apparent flying plans, thus he may have been bringing the drugs in for sale in Portugal.
