The Minister of Justice today admitted in parliament that the government is considering changes to the speedboat regime, including criminalising fuel transport.
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04/11/2026
by
Lusa
A minister of Justice today admitted in Parliament to consider changes to the regime of high-speed craft, so-called speedboats, namely the criminalization of fuel transport.
At the parliamentary hearing on the speciality of the government’s proposal for the next state budget, Rita Alarcão Júdice said in response to Members that the use of high-speed drugs vessels “is a critical issue”.
“ We know we need to keep looking at the system, we're seeing what's going on. We are considering amendments that may respond to various problems, coercion measures, preventive detention, the criminalisation of fuel transport, and we specifically ask the Directorate-General for Justice Policy to carry out a comparatively technical-legal analysis, so that we can prepare a proposal for a legislative amendment if justified,” he told Members.
On recent seizures in large quantities of fuel, particularly in operations against drug trafficking, Rita Alarcão Júdice said that, together with the Ministry of the Environment, a solution was reached “to indicate to the judiciary for the use of these fuels, which will be allocated to the national reserve”.
The new legal regime for high-speed vessels (EAV) entered into force on 17 May and provides for prison sentences up to four years, fines up to EUR 100 thousand for legal persons and “criminal responsibility for those who manufacture, transport, own or cede VAS outside legal conditions, with prison sentence of one to four years”.