In a statement published on the official webpage of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Judicial District of Portalegre, the Public Ministry stated that the detainees are aged between 19 and 42, with two being parents of two other defendants involved.
According to the indictment, the accused were engaged in the purchase, sale, possession, transfer, third-party exchange, transport, and storage of drugs like hashish, cocaine, cannabis, and MDMA for profit.
The accused operated in Évora, Estremoz, Veiros, and Borba in Évora district, as well as in Santo Amaro, Sousel, Elvas, and Campo Maior in Portalegre district, the Public Ministry specified.
“The defendant who led the organization procured narcotic substances in Lisbon and the south bank of the Tagus River, distributing it to the other defendants who, in turn, provided it to consumers,” the document states.
Within the organization, the defendants “performed various roles,” some in transportation and others in the preparation of narcotic substances, “though all distributed” to consumers, and “almost all” sold under the orders and directions of the defendant identified as the leader of the alleged criminal network, the Public Ministry added.
Six of the defendants are in preventive detention, five are required to remain at home, and the others are free under terms of identity and residence.
A source from the Portalegre Territorial Command of the GNR explained that this accusation by the Public Ministry relates to an operation conducted by this security force on November 20 of last year, which led to the arrest of 18 drug trafficking suspects in the districts of Portalegre, Évora, and Setúbal.
Previously reported by Lusa, based on a GNR statement, 15 men and three women were arrested and presented before the Judicial Court of Elvas, in Portalegre district, between November 21 and December 2.
The court decreed preventive detention for 11 of those 18 suspects, while the others were subjected to terms of identity and residence.
Additionally, three more suspects were formally charged with drug trafficking.
The GNR operation, which had been under investigation for about two years, led to the seizure of 10,274 doses of hashish, 8,426 doses of cocaine, and 319 doses of cannabis, along with 70 ‘ecstasy’ pills and 15 MDMA pills.
Authorities also seized approximately 16,000 euros in cash, 36 mobile phones, 11 precision scales, four computers, two vehicles, two firearm replicas, an air rifle with a telescopic sight, and various drug-cutting and packaging materials.
The investigation was carried out by the GNR’s Criminal Investigation Unit in Elvas, under the direction of the Public Ministry of Elvas.
