PJ holds 6 and “lock” drug laboratory. Cocaine came in cinnamon

A Judicial Police (PJ) arrested six people on Tuesday for the practice of drug crime in Santiago do Cacém, in Setúbal district. In the same context, the authorities also stopped the assembly of a drug laboratory.

According to a statement sent by PJ this Wednesday, the arrests were developed in the framework of an operation called Spice. 

It was in the course of the study that “it was possible to identify a villa in the municipality of Santiago do Cacém, where a laboratory was being set up to extract cocaine, which reached the national territory mixed in cinnamon and other spices from a country in South America”.

According to PJ, the detainees are five men and one woman, all foreigners and aged between 30 and 58. The group was responsible for transporting and extracting cocaine from the spices where it came under cover.

Already inside the villa in question, a “large amount of cocaine-containing powder spices” was seized. In the same space were also found all “equipments and products needed to extract the drug, including chemicals”.

“In the course of the operation, several home searches were conducted to the residences of the suspects and three vehicles, money and various communications material were seized,” he says.

The PJ also points out that the amount of cocaine found mixed in spices has not yet been “totally determined, but is estimated to be around 100 kgs”.

Detainees shall be present at the first judicial interrogation for enforcement of the coercion measures. The investigation continues and the respective investigation is titled by the Sintra Department of Investigation and Criminal Action.