Two Ukrainian men, aged 39 and 45, have been arrested on board their British registered yacht off the coast of Sagres with what police describe as a massive haul of cocaine, 599 Kilos of the white powder packed securely on board.
The men have been remanded in custody and according to the police, the drugs were bound for the European market.
The Ukrainians started their journey in South America and passed the Azores and Madeira until they were hauled over in Portuguese territorial waters near the mainland off Sagres by the Judicial Police with the cooperation of the Portuguese Navy.
The two men are "strongly suspected of drug trafficking for profit," have been in court and now await trial.
The operation was under the direction of the Public Prosecutor’s Department of Investigation and Penal Action in Lisbon and was expedited by the Judicial Police’s National Unit for Combating Trafficking in Drugs.
The Judicial Police said the arrests took place as part of an operation carried out in collaboration with the Navy and the Portuguese Air Force and was part of "a broader framework for identifying, combatting and dismantling organised criminal networks that have been using this kind of modus operandi for the importation of cocaine into Europe."
