Three men were arrested on Monday for drug trafficking as part of an operation to combat international trafficking by air, the Judicial Police (JP) said Tuesday.
The JV said in a statement that, as part of Operation Madrugadas Brancas, eight searches were carried out in homes and other places, seizing several mobile phones and “other items of interest to confirm the facts under investigation.”
According to the joint venture, the detainees, aged between 29 and 37, are suspected of belonging to a criminal group involved in the importation of large quantities of cocaine to the European continent through the Humberto Delgado International Airport in Lisbon.
The suspects managed to get “the drug out of the control of the authorities with the support of employees of the company that provided baggage handling services” at the airport in Lisbon.
The SP indicates that two of the detainees are former employees of a company providing services at the Humberto Delgado airport, and the other is a member of the municipal police from a municipality in the Greater Lisbon area.
The suspects “have been presented to the competent judicial authority for the purpose of conducting the first judicial interrogation of the detained defendant and applying coercive measures,” the SP reports, noting that the investigation is ongoing.