A coercive measure was applied by the Central Criminal Instruction Court in Lisbon, where the suspects were interrogated by a judge today.
Upon leaving the court, the lawyers for four of the seven defendants assured that their clients are innocent.
The PSP conducted an operation from Friday to Sunday in the Lisbon metropolitan area, resulting in the seizure of “several tons of hashish, various firearms, hundreds of thousands of euros in cash, speedboats, and cars, as well as the arrest of seven suspects, six of whom are Portuguese,” noted the police force in a statement today.
Speaking on the sidelines of a police station inauguration in the municipality of Odivelas, PSP’s national director, Luís Carrilho, deferred further explanations to a press conference scheduled for Tuesday, praising the work of the officers who seized about six tons of narcotics, mostly hashish, in a warehouse in Seixal, where two speedboats were also found.
In a subsequent statement, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) indicated that preventive detention was requested by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, with the defendants charged with the crimes of aggravated drug trafficking, criminal association, and possession, use, and carrying of a prohibited weapon.
According to the statement, the detainees are suspected of being part of an organization, at least since April 2024, that is dedicated to procuring a large quantity of hashish for subsequent sale in the Greater Lisbon area, using “facilities located in areas that facilitate its transport by water” for storage.
“My client is just a fisherman. We will carefully analyze the coercive measures’ order to see if there are grounds to appeal,” reacted Bruno Ferreira Telo, the lawyer representing one of the detainees, upon leaving the Central Criminal Instruction Court.
Rui Carvalho, the representative of two other defendants, also stated that he will appeal the application of preventive detention to his clients, asserting that they are not involved in trafficking.
A lawyer representing a fourth detainee, Bárbara Carvalho, assured that her client “is a family man, a worker,” and that “justice will certainly be done.”
The investigation was launched in May 2025 by the Lisbon Department of Investigation and Penal Action and is subject to judicial secrecy.
[News updated at 18:37]
