The Polícia Judiciária (PJ) released footage on Tuesday of Operation El Dorado, which led to the interception of a semisubmersible carrying over 1.7 tons of cocaine destined for the Iberian Peninsula.
The authorities reported that the semisubmersible, “used by a transnational criminal organization,” was intercepted in the Atlantic Ocean as part of an “operation to combat drug trafficking by sea.”
In total, four individuals from Venezuela were arrested.
The operation, according to the PJ, “originated from information shared at the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre Narcotics (MAOC-N),” a European center for coordinating and combating international drug trafficking via sea and air.
The effort was a coordinated action between the PJ and the Portuguese Navy and included international cooperation from the Portuguese Air Force, the UK’s National Crime Agency, France’s Direction Nationale du Renseignement et des Enquêtes Douanières (DNRED), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration – DEA, and the Joint Interagency Task Force South.
The investigation is now being handled by the PJ’s National Anti-Drug Trafficking Unit and continues “in cooperation with authorities from other countries.”
Watch the video of Operation El Dorado in the gallery above.
