RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Judiciary Police of Cape Verde, an archipelago nation located off the west coast of Africa, arrested five Brazilians and seized 2.2 tons of cocaine from a vessel owned by the group.
The police said they had relied on the cooperation of the Brazilian Federal Police to conduct the raid on the suspects, who will be brought before local courts to validate the arrests and examine the case.
According to the Judiciary Police, an operation in partnership with the Coast Guard located the vessel ‘Perpétuo Socorro de Abaeté II’ on Saturday, August 3rd.
A picture released by the body shows dozens of blocks of narcotics wrapped in plastic and bags. The operation also counted on the support of the Center for Operations and Maritime Analysis, based in Lisbon.
The local police has not provided information regarding the identification of the Brazilians nor did they report how the narcotics were concealed in the vessel.
Three yachtsmen were released from prison in Cape Verde in February
In February this year, three Brazilian yachtsmen were released from jail in Cape Verde after 16 months of detention on drug trafficking charges.
They had been sentenced to a ten-year prison term for international drug trafficking, a sentence that was ultimately overturned by the courts.
Daniel Felipe da Silva Guerra, Rodrigo Lima Dantas and Daniel Ribeiro Dantas were arrested in August 2017.
They were on their way to the Azores archipelago when they were approached by Cape Verdean police, who found more than a ton of cocaine on the boat.
The men claimed to have been unfairly prosecuted. The judge in the case considered that there had been a violation of their right to a full defense.