The crackdown was the culmination of a two-year investigation which allowed for the dismantling of a Lisbon-based, transnational criminal association, led and made up of Portuguese nationals.
The network specialised in the trafficking of cocaine via air.
In a statement , the PJ explained that during the course of the investigation fifty people were formally identified and made persons of interest, and thirteen men and twelve women aged 24 to 39 were arrested at different points in the probe.
Four of the men and two of the women who were arrested were detained by police in Brazil as they prepared to board a flight that would bring them to Lisbon.
They were found to be in possession of 96 kilograms of cocaine.
According to the PJ, the ring’s Modus Operandi consisted of acquiring considerable quantities of cocaine in southern American countries and bringing it into Portugal using mules, for its subsequent distribution.
Portugal’s PJ described the network as “a well-defined and sophisticated structure” with “precise rules regarding the definition of the profile and recruitment of mules” who would carry out the transport, and who were put through “specific training.”
The mules would transport and introduce the drugs into Portugal on commercial flights by carrying the illegal substance in their baggage.
On occasions the mules would also carry the drugs inside themselves or send them through postal packages.
During the operation, 45 house searches were carried out, in which a range of evidence as well as small quantities of other drugs such as MDMA and hashish were confiscated.