PSP agents implicated in Colombian trafficking gang “still in service”
Portugal Resident
Agents among 25 official suspects following ‘mega’ operation across Iberian Peninsula
Two PSP agents attached to Beja Command are said to be among 25 people arrested in a mega operation across Spain and Portugal targeting a network that allegedly collaborated with “the Clan del Golfo” – Colombia’s largest drugs cartel, notorious for kidnappings and murders.
Yet, according to a report in Correio da Manhã today, the agents – “denounced by their own police force – remain in service”.
An official PSP source has explained this is because the force has not yet been officially notified (by the Public Prosecutor’s Office) of the agents’ status as suspects. They have, however, both had disciplinary cases lodged against them (which suggests they are not actively working).
As CM adds, the two policemen assigned to Beja airport came under investigation by the PJ’s national unit against drug trafficking in October last year.
Evidence has since been gathered, says the paper, to show that they “awaited the arrival of private jets to the airport, and with the support of three operatives working for the Clan del Golfo, withdrew suitcases containing hundreds of kilos of cocaine”.
The ‘mastermind’ behind the scheme using their airport as a conduit for drug trafficking was Elisário Bento Augusto, now aged 71, but a man described by the PJ as “an historic Portuguese in the trafficking of drugs”.
According to Jornal de Notícias, Augusto “controlled ports and airports in Portugal and Spain; his services were at the disposition of whoever paid for them”.
He is currently in preventive custody, having been extradited to Spain at the end of last month, after his arrest by the PJ who say they have been aware of his criminal activities for the past 40 years.
With this new operation, dubbed Operation Fossil, the PJ say they believe Augusto “reinforced his contacts with the Clan del Golfo” after coming out of jail in 2016. It will have been at this point that he set up the network of ports and airports ready to receive consignments of the Clan’s drugs.
For now, the case is based in the Spanish court of Alcobendas, in Madrid (hence Augusto’s extradition there).
According to CM today, the network laundered the money it made through ‘Hawalers’ – an illegal banking circuit “increasingly favoured by criminal groups” run by Chinese businessmen.
It is unclear from reports this far whether any of the 25 people detained are Chinese: six were detained in Portugal (including apparently the two PSP agents), 19 in Spain. Detainees have however been described as “of diverse nationalities”.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
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