Figueira de Cavaleiros and Ferreira do Alentejo airfields, were not used by the plane carrying bales of hashish. The “eviction” was done in full A26, after landing on that highway.
The unidentified plane that on Tuesday entered the airspace carrying bales of hashish and was followed by F-16 fighter jets and the Air Force's P-3C CUP+ (FAP), landed in full A26, between the A2-Grândola Sul junction and the Malhada Velha roundabout, in Ferreira do Alentejo county, not using any of the runways at the two airfields located in the latter county.
Confirmation was made to Lidador Notícias (LN) by two sources knowledgeable about the maneuver performed by the aircraft, who assured that it was not the first time that this happened on that road.
One of our interlocutors assured that at the Figueira de Cavaleiros airfield, at Monte da Azinheira Grande, GNR soldiers were waiting for the aircraft to land, what did not happen and on the runway at Monte da Aviôa, a 1,2 kilometers of Ferreira do Alentejo, when the owner is away, what was the case, agricultural machinery is parked to make landings unfeasible.
According to information provided by the Air Force, this from the Air Base (BA) 11, in Beja, “has detected an aircraft approaching national airspace, uncommunicated and unidentified”, adding that it was “detected south of the Algarve and heading north, two F-16 planes and one P-3C CUP+ were mobilized”, justified the FAP.
The tracking of the intruding aircraft, that would come from North Africa, was made by the electronic systems of this last aircraft, which allowed “the authorities on the ground to be informed of the route and location of the plane, that would land near Ferreira do Alentejo”, not specifying where.
little past of 14,00 hours when the GNR received the communication and mobilized various territorial and transit means in Beja, Ferreira do Alentejo and Grândola, to catch hashish receivers.
After the drug was collected by henchmen who were waiting for the plane, the vehicle that was transporting her left the A26, joined the EN 259 no sense north, towards Grândola and accessing the A2-Grândola Sul junction, headed south, peel EN 261/IC1. feeling hounded, the individuals entered Azinheira dos Barros and then took the dirt roads, ending up abandoning the vehicle and the drugs next to a ruined hill and fleeing on foot.
There are two questions that so far remain unanswered.: because they were not arrests by the PJ, responsible for research, and by the GNR the force that went to the ground and why it let the Air Force escape the invading aircraft.
The LN questioned the FAP about the history of interventions in cases like this, with Public Relations justifying that “it cannot add more information to what is in the statement”, concluded.
Largest seizure of air traffic in Portugal
In 30 January 2015, in an Air Force follow-up operation, also from BA11, at Beja Municipal Airfield, the PC learned 277 kilos of hashish, from morocco, transported aboard a single-engine plane and arrested four Portuguese as they unloaded the drugs (photos from below).
In addition to hashish and the device, a “Piper Cherokee Six”, which at the time costs 75 thousand euros, registration at Santa Cruz aerodrome, in Torres Vedras, a Kalashnikov machine gun was seized, a Taurus pistol 7,65 and ammunition, a Fabarm shotgun and cartridges and five motor vehicles, um Mercedes, a BMW, two Opel Frontera jeeps and a Mitsubishi Patrol.
The four individuals involved, residents in Torres Vedras and Amadora, were sentenced to heavy prison sentences.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
