The Judicial Police, through the National Office of Interpol, in conjunction with the National Unit to Combat Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs, today achieved the return to Portugal from Brazil of two wanted persons in furtherance of extradition proceedings initiated by the Portuguese judicial authorities.

One of the 45-year-old returned had been arrested in Natal, Brazil, since March last year, as a result of an international arrest warrant to serve 10 years and 6 months imprisonment. This was served on him by the District Court for trafficking in heroin, cocaine, hashish, ecstasy and possession of prohibited firearms in the year 2000. He has since been taken to a prison for the execution of the sentence.

The other 63-year-old person extradited was earlier detained in Fortaleza, Brazil, where he served 22 years in prison for murder, robbery and kidnapping crimes in that country. It has now been handed over as part of an international arrest warrant for the prosecution as a suspect respect of international crime of cocaine trafficking from South America to Portugal in 1999. He will be presented to the judicial authorities in the Court of the County of Leiria for the first judicial interrogation and application of pre-trial conditions.