According toastatement from the Regional Command of the Public Security Police (PSP) of the Azores, the suspect was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Squad of Ponta Delgada, following an anonymous tip-off about an alleged drug transaction “taking place in Largo Mártires da Pátria”.
The PSP said that, “as there had been recent reports of hashish being consumed and sold in the vicinity of the Antero de Quental Secondary School, the squad on permanent duty was immediately called to the scene in order to ascertain the real contours of the situation”.
“As a result of the rapid approach made by PSP investigators at the scene, it was immediately possible to verify a highly suspicious behavior in a vehicle parked in Largo Mártires da Pátria, and it was noticeable that a drug addict was going to that vehicle to buy drugs, a transaction that did not materialize as a result of police intervention,” it reads.
Also according to the PSP, following the investigations carried out by the investigators, “it was possible to detect and seize in the vehicle belonging to the defendant”, who was immediately arrested, “more than 50 doses of hashish in clear conditions for sale to drug addicts”.
Next to the accused was a 17-year-old woman, who was also made a defendant “because she was in possession of objects that linked her to the alleged crime”.
“In view of the scenario at the scene and in conjunction with other information in the PSP’s possession, which pointed to the defendant as one of the main suppliers of hashish in the vicinity of Liceu Antero de Quental, investigative measures were immediately carried out, In particular, a house search and a search of a second vehicle belonging to the defendant were carried out, and it was possible to seize approximately 0.5 kg of hashish, [a quantity] that would allow more than 900 individual doses to be prepared for consumption, [and] two vehicles, among other objects related to the crime,” the PSP said.
The detainee, after being questioned by the investigating judge at the Ponta Delgada court, will await the remaining stages of the case under house arrest.
In the note, the PSP’s Azores Regional Command stresses the importance of the intervention, which “allowed the criminal activity of an accused suspected of drug trafficking in the vicinity of a school to be stopped” and who had recently been arrested for committing the same type of crime.