Seven Portuguese men aged between 46 and 58, all from the western Algarve, were caught red-handed at dawn on Sunday as they unloaded 2 tonnes of Moroccan hashish.
The Portuguese authorities had been tracking the shipment and, by using night vision equipment, knew at which Sagres beach the criminals were going to collect the drug bales from the delivery boat.
The Judicial Police said that the operation was carried out as part of a Department of Criminal Investigation of Portimão investigation with the help of the National Unit to Combat Drug Trafficking, the GNR’s Coastal Control Unit and the Portuguese Air Force.
The seven men were arrested "for committing the crime of drug trafficking," and will be held until their court appearance on Monday morning in Lisbon when the court will decide on charges and whether that will have to be detained until trial - which is likely in a shipment of this size.
The 70 bales of hashish were onboard a vessel that already was suspected of being used for drug trafficking and was being tracked by investigators of the Department of Criminal Investigation in Portimão.
"We were monitoring the boat and we were able to chart the course and the exact location of where it was heading," said Moís Carmo, the PJ director in Faro.
The seven men were said by police to be “astonished” when they were surpsied by armed police as they prepared to load the bales into an all-terrain vehicle.
The drug shipment was destined for Spain and was under the control of an international organisation which would have divided the shipment and distributed it to several European countries.
