The Judiciary Police (PJ) and the Navy intercepted a semi-submersible in the Atlantic with 1.7 tons of cocaine and four crew members on board, which was destined for the Iberian Peninsula, in an operation that included international cooperation.
The four detainees, from Venezuela, are being heard this Monday, November 3, during judicial interrogation at the criminal investigation court in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, in the Azores, the PJ told Lusa.
In a statement released this Monday, the PJ states that the ‘El Dorado’ operation took place in recent days, leading to the interception of the vessel and the drugs in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The semi-submersible would be used “by a transnational criminal organization”, said the PJ in the statement about the operation, which “originated from information shared at the Maritime Analysis and Operations Center – Narcotics (MAOC-N)” and in which the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Joint Interagency Task Force South, both from the USA, also participated.
“On the vessel, intercepted in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, were four crew members, along with the narcotic product, which would have its final destination in several countries on the European continent. The investigation, under the responsibility of the PJ’s National Unit to Combat Narcotic Trafficking, continues in cooperation with authorities from other countries”, reads the statement from the PJ, which scheduled a press conference on the operation for Tuesday morning.