The GNR have made four arrests for drug trafficking, one of the men is a businessman in the clothing game who has been a hashish importer for years.
The GNR arrested the men in Quarteira and found they successfully had nabbed the local Mr Big whom they had been tracking and who has been wholesaling hashish to other dealers in the Algarve and in Setúbal.
In a statement, the GNR stressed that the main target was the 36-year-old Portuguese 'businessman' in the rag trade and who was a “major contributor to the introduction of hashish in the region who imported the drugs and sold them to other dealers with links to Algarve and especially to the Costa Vicentina, particularly in the district of Setúbal.”
The arrests on Sunday included searches at properties, shops and vehicles where they found the equivalent weight of 80,850 individual spliffs, more than €11,000 in cash, 33 cannabis plants, shotguns, ammunition, guns, side arms and material related to the cultivation and preparation of the drug.
Mr Big sold drugs from a parked caravan in a garage in Quarteira where the imported drugs were stored in bulk.
The GNR spokesman said that the investigation had been in conjunction with the Centre of Criminal Investigation in Loulé and the main target had been caught red-handed as he was selling a "considerable amount" of drugs to two men.
The four arrested men are scheduled for an initial hearing and are charged with drug trafficking.