In a statement, the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) explained that the seizure was made by the Sines Customs Delegation of the Setúbal Customs, at the container port of that coastal Alentejo city.
The drugs were concealed “in a conventional cargo of lubricating oils.”
“The legitimate cargo was packed in a 20-foot container, which was unloaded in Sines, with a view to its transshipment to another vessel and transport to its final destination,” they added.
The seizure was based on the monitoring that AT customs teams “systematically carry out on goods that ‘touch’ national soil, whether to remain in European Union territory or to proceed to another destination.”
Given the local risk analysis, the container was selected for non-intrusive control using scanner equipment, and it was determined that it should be opened.
According to AT, “the existence of sports bags hidden among the oil drums” was immediately verified, which configures the “use of the ‘rip-off’ method.”
The bags “contained a product that was immediately subjected to a chemical test that allowed the product to be classified as a narcotic, more specifically cocaine,” they indicated.
The ‘rip-off’ method, the authority explained, is based on the “abusive use of a legitimate cargo, in legitimate transport, to deliver a shipment of narcotics concealed there and ready to be quickly extracted from a container to the intended destination.”
The seized drugs were handed over to the Judicial Police (PJ), which is the criminal police body with exclusive investigative competence in this matter.
“This seizure, carried out on national territory by the AT’s Customs Inspection and Supervision area, represents, along with those carried out by the Judicial Police or others still carried out in collaboration with AT, another strong blow to the criminal organizations involved,” the agency assured.
