Last month, three women were taken into custody after being caught at Lisbon airport allegedly attempting to smuggle “invisible” cocaine into the country within packets of gourmet coffee.
The foreign women, all in their 20’s, had landed on a flight from South America and were carrying enough cocaine between them for 60,000 individual doses.
Days later, PJ police arrested a 35-year-old suspect also at Lisbon airport, who had arrived on a flight from a South American country, for attempting to smuggle enough cocaine for at least 24,000 individual doses into the country, also hidden inside coffee packets.
In a statement, the PJ explained “the drug in question, which was mixed with ground coffee and did not react to the field tests normally used to identify this type of narcotic drug, had undergone a complex chemical treatment which until recently was unknown to the police authorities, to prevent its detection and identification.”
Earlier this month, a Guinean national was arrested at Lisbon airport after arriving on a flight from Brazil, when he was found to be carrying a suitcase full of chocolate bonbons – which turned out to be stuffed with cocaine.
In total, the mule was carrying over five kilos of highly pure cocaine, which would have had a street value of €250,000.
And this week, the PJ announced they have arrested another foreign national at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport on suspicion of attempting to bring cocaine into Portugal, this time dissolved in olive oil.
“The arrest of the suspect occurred within the framework of the regular checks on movements of passengers from countries considered to be at risk, with a view to preventing the introduction of narcotic drugs into national territory and other European countries by air”, the PJ said in a statement.
Again, the suspect had arrived from a South American country and was carrying enough of the drug for “at least 33,000 individual doses”.
“The drug in question was carried by the suspect in his luggage inside olive oil bottles so as to make it difficult for them to be identified by the police authorities”, the force elaborated.
The 33-year-old defendant is being held in custody as an investigation is carried out by the PJ.