Arrest and expulsion from the country for businessman caught with a ton of cocaine

This Tuesday, the Matosinhos court proved that Hermes Tavares devised a plan to bring “large quantities of drugs” to Portugal. To give the business a legal appearance, he created a company in Portugal and, according to the group of judges, decided to integrate Manuel from Gaiense into the business.

It was clear to the judges during the trial that, still in Brazil, “Hermes or someone at his command cut the inside of the ceramic plates” and stored more than a thousand kilos of cocaine there. The drug, enough for four million doses, would be worth more than 40 million euros on the street

After this, Hermes hired a company to transport the cargo and traveled to Portugal, where, “together with Manuel, he arranged” for the collection of the container that arrived through the port of Leixões, having hired another transport company for this. This took the container from the port of Leixões to a warehouse in Árvore, Vila do Conde.

At the moment when Hermes, Manuel and three other defendants were starting to unload the container, they were approached by inspectors from the Porto Judiciary Police and arrested.

The court also found that the cocaine belonged to Hermes and Manuel and that both “acted together” to obtain “high profits”. There was also no doubt that Hermes acted on behalf of the company, which is also a defendant in the case and was ordered to pay a fine of 216 thousand euros.

The panel of judges acquitted the remaining three defendants – Luís, Diego and Igor – considering that it was not proven that they were aware of the plan and the existence of the drug. The first two were acquitted because there were doubts about their involvement and the third because “he did not commit any crime”.

Throughout the process, the businessman always denied the accusations, saying he did not know who the cocaine was from and justifying that he was importing prefabricated house kits. Although the imported materials were purchased in a commercial area in Brazil that has several stores in Portugal, the businessman tried to make the court believe that they were cheaper in Brazil.