“The Coastal and Border Control Unit (UCCF), through the Olhão Coastal Control Detachment, on September 12, intercepted a high-speed boat with 127 bales of hashish on the Guadiana River,” the GNR said in a statement.

According to the GNR, the UCCF military personnel supported the Guardia Civil, “after this force detected a high-speed vessel entering the mouth of the Guadiana River, in Spanish waters”.

In the statement, the guard reports that when they became aware of the presence of the GNR vessel, the occupants of the vessel deliberately ran it aground on the Spanish bank of the river and fled on foot to Spanish territory.

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In this joint operation, 127 bales of hashish were seized that were on board the vessel, totalling 3,500 kilograms, the high-speed vessel, was 12 metres long, with four 300-horsepower engines and 15 jerrycans of fuel.

“The seized material was later handed over to the Spanish authorities”, the Portuguese police force also stated. The UCCF said in a statement that the vessel was detected as part of a “mission to monitor, control and patrol the coast and territorial waters”, which places a “particular focus on combating drug trafficking by sea”, which is regularly used by drug trafficking gangs to transport drugs to the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa and Morocco.

The Olhão Coastal and Border Control Unit is responsible for patrolling the Algarve coast and the Guadiana, a natural border that divides the Algarve and Alentejo from the autonomous Spanish region of Andalusia.