"The new legal regime applicable to High-Speed ​​Vessels (HVEs) — high-powered inflatable and semi-rigid boats, increasingly used in drug and human trafficking off the Portuguese coast — has come into effect," the Government said on social media.

In the message, the executive added that the new law "creates a more demanding legal framework adapted to the current challenges of maritime security, replacing the previous regime of 1990."

Among the main changes is the obligation to keep the vessel docked between 9 pm and 7 am, unless authorised by the Maritime Authority, the mandatory use of an automatic location system (AIS), mandatory and visible marking with the letters "EAV", prior notification of entries and exits from the territory, and authorisation from the tax authorities for import, export, and transport.

The legislation provides for imprisonment of up to four years, fines of up to 100,000 euros for legal entities, and "criminal liability for anyone who manufactures, transports, possesses, or transfers EAVs outside of legal conditions, with a prison sentence of one to four years."

Threat to security

According to the Público newspaper, the director of the National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking (UNCTE) of the Judicial Police (PJ), Artur Vaz, said that high-speed vessels (EAVs) are "the main threat that Portugal, Spain, and also Europe are currently facing" in terms of drug trafficking.

The official said that the speedboats are being used to transport narcotics in the Atlantic Ocean, in the corridor between the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, to the coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

The EAVs are used to bring cocaine from the high seas, from boats that transport it from Latin America, in large quantities, as well as to go to Morocco and North Africa to pick up hashish.

Vaz described this method of drug trafficking as a growing problem and a "genuine piracy of the sea," which has made Portugal "a significant gateway for cocaine into Europe."