The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) has charged four defendants with aggravated drug trafficking, a crime allegedly committed through a company based in Funchal, but with facilities in P贸voa do Varzim, district of Porto.
In a note published on its website, the District Attorney General’s Office of Porto (PGDP) says that the defendants – three residing in France – “were hired” by three other men, responsible for a company that sold cannabis-based products – plants, oils – based in Funchal, but who leased facilities in P贸voa do Varzim.
According to the MP, the defendants were hired “to carry out shipping/distribution operations of orders containing cannabis, to customers residing abroad who purchased such products via ‘online.'”
“In the transport of orders to the P贸voa de Varzim facilities and from these to customers, transport companies were used, including air transport, and the goods were declared to be food products or other legal goods,” says the PGDP.
The MP says that the illicit activity began in October 2024 and that, on the 4th of December 2024, the defendants received three boxes of narcotics from Italy, containing almost 15 kilograms of cannabis leaf/shumites, whose degree of purity was enough for 1,499 individual doses.
On that occasion, the defendants had, inside the establishment in P贸voa do Varzim, 46 envelopes/packages, already closed, ready to be shipped to various recipients, from different regions of France, as well as various exposed/stored products, containing varying cannabis derived products. In total, 14,275 doses of cannabis leaf/sum and 24,512 kilograms of cannabis resin (in plates/fragments of plates), as well as several products containing cannabis resin, were identified and seized.
In addition, the MP adds, on the 19th of December 2024, when the defendants were taken into custody, 11 orders containing various cannabis products were delivered to the commercial space.
The four defendants will remain in custody while the investigation continues.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
