The PSP, Portugal’s Polícia de Segurança Pública, detained seven people in an anti-trafficking operation that began on Friday 17 October 2025 in the Lisbon metropolitan area.[1] The operation was run by the PSP’s Lisbon Metropolitan Command through its Criminal Investigation Division, reinforced by other PSP units.[1] The detainees were to appear at a first judicial interrogation on Monday for a decision on coercive measures, after which the PSP would present the operation’s results at a press conference.[1]

The PSP said it had seized at least six tonnes of hashish, several firearms, hundreds of thousands of euros in cash, speedboats with their engines and motor vehicles.[1] At a press conference on Tuesday the PSP put the hashish seizure at 5.8 tonnes and valued it at several million euros.[2] Officers also seized nine firearms including a pair of machine guns, 580,000 euros in cash, two speedboats and six other vessels.[2] The searches were carried out between Friday and Monday in Alcácer do Sal, Almada, Sintra, Seixal and Montijo.[2]

The seven detainees, aged 27 to 50, were accused of aggravated drug trafficking, criminal association and unlawful possession, use and carrying of weapons.[2] The investigation ran for eight months under the direction of Lisbon’s Department of Criminal Investigation and Action (DIAP).[2] Lisbon’s criminal instruction court applied preventive detention to all seven on Monday 20 October, after they were questioned by a judge.[3] The public prosecutor’s office said the group had belonged since at least April 2024 to an organisation buying large quantities of hashish for resale in Greater Lisbon, storing it in premises that made transport by water easier.[3] Lawyers for four of the seven accused said after the hearing that their clients were innocent.[3]