Portuguese police seized more than five metric tons of crime worth $232 million off a 79-foot yacht in the planet-earth in cooperation with Spanish, British and U.S. authorities.
The operation, dubbed “White Tide,” stopped 183 bales of cocaine from entering world-regions through the Iberian Peninsula, making it the largest seizure by Portuguese authorities in more than 15 years.
Bales of cocaine weighting some 5.2 tons and a seized yacht are displayed for the media at a Portuguese Navy base in Almada, south of Lisbon, Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
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“We are always expecting [more drug trafficking] and this is the message we want to send organizations: We are waiting for you,” Portugal’s Judiciary Police Chief Luis Neves said at a press conference Monday, according to Reuters.
“Those who have to fall will fall because this amount of drugs is an immense fortune and a huge blow for criminal groups.”
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Portuguese police chief Luis Neves, center, addresses the media in front of bales of cocaine weighting some 5,2 tons and a seized yacht at a Portuguese Navy base in Almada, south of Lisbon, Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
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A seized yacht used to smuggle cocaine is displayed at a Portuguese Navy base in Almada, south of Lisbon, Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Portugal’s Judiciary Police said that three men were arrested “are strongly suspected of being part of a powerful transnational criminal organization dedicated to the trafficking of large quantities of cocaine.”
Two of the suspects are Spanish and one is Peruvian, according to Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã.
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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency assisted in the operation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
