Guinea-Bissau prosecutor acquitted in Lisbon hashish case; supplier got suspended term
The Lisbon Central Criminal Court acquitted Guinea-Bissau prosecutor Eduardo Mancanha and his friend Alfa Iaia Baldé on 27 January 2026 of trafficking the 194 grams of cannabis found in Mancanha's bag at Lisbon Airport on 21 April 2024. The third defendant, who supplied the tea box, was convicted and given a suspended term of one year and three months; the ruling became final in February 2026.
Guinea-Bissau prosecutor Eduardo Mancanha was detained at Lisbon Airport on
Sunday 21 April 2024 while preparing to board a flight to Bissau.[1]Guinea-Bissau’s Public Prosecution Service said he had about 200 grams of
hashish, known in Portuguese as haxixe, in his luggage.[1]The council
statement said he had spent more than three years in Portugal on service leave
to study when officers caught him in flagrante delicto with 200 grams of a
product presumed to be drugs.[1]Portuguese police apprehended him at Lisbon
airport.[2]He was in Portugal on leave to prepare a doctorate in law.[2]
The Superior Council of the Public Prosecution Service preventively suspended
him, citing the gravity of the conduct under the prosecution magistrates’
statutes.[1]The council also opened disciplinary proceedings and named deputy
prosecutor-general Quintino Inbequi to conduct the inquiry.[1]
Guinea-Bissau’s prosecution office said it had been informed through appropriate
channels on Sunday the 21st of a magistrate’s detention for alleged drug
trafficking.[1]The prosecution leadership then convened the deputy
prosecutors-general and informed them of the magistrate’s imprisonment in
Lisbon.[1]
The Lisbon Central Criminal Court acquitted Guinea-Bissau prosecutor Eduardo Mancanha of drug trafficking on 27 January 2026, the Observador reported.[3]The court found it not proven that Mancanha and his friend Alfa Iaia Baldé knew the parcel held the cannabis, the ruling said.[3]The prosecution service charged three people on 27 February 2025: Mancanha, Alfa Iaia Baldé and Bá Samba Darame, who supplied the tea box.[3]Bá Samba Darame admitted placing the drugs in the tea sachets and was given a suspended prison term of one year and three months.[3]Prosecutors asked for Mancanha’s acquittal at trial and did not appeal the ruling, which became final on the last working day of February 2026.[3]The trial ran for about three months, between late 2025 and early 2026, before a panel chaired by judge Ana Paula Rosa.[3]The seized cannabis weighed 194.178 grams, about 200 grams, packed in two wrappers in a tea box and wrapped in a film printed with a triangle and the words “As crenças secretas dos Illuminati.”[3]The two packages of cannabis were found in a tea box during the baggage check on 21 April 2024, as Mancanha prepared to fly to Bissau.[4]Guinea-Bissau’s magistracy expelled him in October 2024, six months after the suspension, and he said he was never formally notified.[3]Mancanha says the disciplinary expulsion is under challenge and has asked to return to Guinea-Bissau’s prosecution service.[3]
Photos and video
The cannabis seized in the case of Eduardo Mancanha. Photo: DR (Observador)Photo details
RFI, citing unofficial information available to the Guinean prosecution, reported two kilograms of unspecified drugs, while Jornal de Noticias reported about 200 grams of hashish; the report records only the cannabis-specific 200 grams and does not count the two-kilogram figure as cannabis.
The incident date of 21 April 2024 is inferred from the detention being described as last Sunday day 21 in an article published on 26 April 2024.
No charges, custody ruling or court outcome were reported in the two April 2024 sources used; the case stood at detention, suspension and disciplinary inquiry.
The 194.178-gram weight comes from a single publisher, the Observador; earlier reports described about 200 grams of hashish.
The report gives 25 April 2024 for the council's preventive suspension but no date for the disciplinary decision that expelled him, beyond October 2024.
The report says the ruling became final on the last working day of February 2026 without naming the date.
The Observador does not report whether the Guinean authorities have responded to his request to be reinstated in the prosecution service.
O magistrado da Guiné que foi absolvido de tráfico de droga (Observador) could not be opened again to check its quotations (The browser page answered HTTP 404.; archived fallback unavailable (Wayback availability answered HTTP 429). No AI research was started); what it says is as the AI read it.
PSP officers detained a 19-year-old man in Vila Franca de Xira on 10 November 2026 after a patrol in Bom Retiro found 34.88 individual doses of hashish on him. A search of a storage room he used turned up eight more slabs, equated to 1,571.72 doses, for a total of about 1,616 doses.
Judicial Police officers detained two men at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport after finding 34 kg of cannabis leaves in luggage arriving from Southeast Asia. Both were placed in pretrial detention while the investigation into the trafficking network continues under Lisbon’s DIAP.
GNR officers backed by the PSP arrested four men aged 24 to 69 on 9 November 2026 during searches in Guimarães and Valongo, seizing 13 doses of hashish alongside cocaine, heroin, firearms and 5,225 euros in cash. Two suspects were released under an identity and residence term, while two were to appear before an investigating judge in Guimarães for a first judicial interrogation.
On 30 June 2026 the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed the appeals of two men and left in place prison terms of seven years and eight years and six months for carrying 29.3 kilograms of cannabis resin from Spain to Santarém.
