The director of the PJ’s National Unit to Combat Narcotic Trafficking (UNCTE), Artur Vaz, said, in statements to journalists in Porto, that “the operation had been taking place for a few months and aimed at the total dismantling of a criminal organisation dedicated to the importation into Europe of considerable quantities of cocaine”.

Artur Vaz indicated that "the criminal network had a strong presence in Portuguese territory and imported very significant amounts of drugs", essentially cocaine, imported from Latin America and then distributed in Portugal and other European countries.

According to a statement from the PJ, during the "Exotic Fruit III" operation, nine Portuguese citizens, aged between 25 and 66, were arrested, and 21 home and non-home searches were carried out.