Four hundred kilos of high quality cocaine, which the police estimates as having a street value of around €20 million, were found aboard a yacht from the Caribbean and seized in the early hours of Saturday, September 30th.
The two crew members, an Italian and a Montenegran national, were detained and the yacht and illegal cargo were brought to Portimão docks.
The UK and Italian intelligence services has been tracking the shipment and as soon as it entered the Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone 600 miles south of the Açores, an operation swung into action with the involvement of the Portuguese Air Force and the Navy, which sent in the Marines.
Rosa Mota, a coordinator at the National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, said the cocaine was destined for Portugal but would not reveal the port as the investigation in still in progress.
The judicial police said the vessel is part of a known European network with links to Latin America, 'probably' the Caribbean and Portugal.
The Air Force spotted and tracked the vessel from a high altitude so as not to alert the crew, giving the Navy time to send in two corvettes from which the Marines were dispatched.
The yacht's crew members were not armed and offered no resistance.
This is the largest seizure of drugs in Portugal this year.
