LISBON, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A boat containing 1,800 kg of hashish has been seized off Portugal's southern coast, the Judicial Police (PJ) announced on Tuesday.
The police intercepted a motorboat containing 60 bundles of the drug in an estuary outside Tavira, a town 300 km south of Lisbon, near the Spanish border.
The bundles were being transferred onto a speedboat, having been brought in on the larger boat from Morocco. Three men were arrested, aged 36, 48 and 68 respectively.
The bust was a joint operation involving the PJ, the Portuguese Air Force, the Coastal Patrol division of the National Republican Guard (GNR) and the Maritime Police.
The hashish haul represented a second success for the GNR, which also announced on Tuesday that it had broken up a black market cigarette racket after a four-month investigation.
The GNR swooped on three secret cigarette-manufacturing factories in Evora, a city 130 km south of Lisbon.
Officers apprehended 122,274 cigarettes and 112 kilos of fine-cut tobacco, while making four preliminary arrests. The illegal operation is thought to have cost the Portuguese tax authorities 1 million euros in lost customs revenue.
