Using this graph, you can better understand the levels of highest incidence of each of the OPCs, especially the “generic” ones, depending on whether they are land, sea or air traffic, the latter two being exclusively predecessors of the first, as this is their final destination, which is why seizures in this context invariably report large quantities of narcotics, especially maritime drugs – made, among others, through speedboats, submarines and/or commercial containers.
It can be seen, in effect, that the PJ assumes the largest expense when it comes to cocaine seizures (also a result of the greater pressure that Portugal has felt in recent times, being considered by the European Union Agency on Drugs), with more than 90% of the global volume of cocaine seized, while the large quantities of hashish, coming almost in its entirety from Morocco (Rife area), have been carried out by the GNR and PJ, most of it on the high seas, on the coast. Algarvia and Guadiana River, with almost 90% of the entire volume. On the other hand, when it comes to heroin, almost all of which is transported by land, from its main producers (Afghanistan and Pakistan), entering European circuits and outlets, the PSP is responsible for more than 70% of the volume of seizures of this opiate.
Finally, when it comes to esctasy, the PSP assumes the largest percentage of the volume of seizures, together with the PJ, which, remember, not long ago, dismantled synthetic drug production laboratories.
From the analysis of the data we have just presented, we can easily see the undeniable importance that the Security Forces, PSP and GNR, along with the PJ, have played in combating drug trafficking, as a result of their work in criminal investigation, international cooperation and also criminal prevention, all of them occupying an irreplaceable and primary place in this broad response.
Therefore, the existence of a normative primacy that attributes prevalence to the PJ in the fight against drug trafficking no longer makes any sense – cf. art. 7, no. 3 al. i) the Criminal Investigation Organization Law -, also based, like the much-vaunted Decree-Law 81/95, on an old framework dating back more than 30 years, where the PSP and GNR had just received their investigative powers in this area, understanding a more relevant role for the PJ, the only investigative body at the time, both in combat and in coordination.
Article 7
Competence of the Judicial Police in matters of criminal investigation
3 – The investigation of the following crimes is also the reserved responsibility of the Judicial Police, without prejudice to the provisions of the following article:
(…)
i) Relating to the trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances, typified in articles 21, 22, 23, 27 and 28 of Decree-Law no.
30 years have passed, and a lot has changed, the PSP, the one we know best, has come a long way in terms of specialization, capacity and high investigative competence in combating the most diverse types of crime, and in particular in combating drug trafficking.
As for the role of coordination in investigations, there is no need to go further, this is the responsibility of the Public Prosecutor’s Office as expressly stated in the LOIC, without prejudice to the fact that in the first instance, as required, there should be interim coordination, within the system, between its actors, and may even be mediated, as is the case in countless other matters, through the Internal Security System whose essence is this.
It is no coincidence that it concentrates within itself the main coordination units of the system, namely the Sirene Office, the Office for Police and Customs Cooperation Centres, the Passenger Information Office, the Office for Liaison Officers and Contact Points for Prüm Decisions and, more recently, the EUROPOL and INTERPOL Offices, without forgetting UCAT, which is responsible for coordinating terrorism.
It will therefore not make any sense to maintain a coordination role for one of the system’s actors, when its role is as relevant as the others, and it must be assumed, at the international and domestic level, by those who coordinate the system, even more so when it has a broad coordination structure in almost all police domains.
Furthermore, the existence of a platform that allows the integrated management of investigations, as per the LOIC set out in its article 11 – Integrated Criminal Information System -, was designed to allow the early detection of investigation conflicts, not only with regard to drug trafficking, but in relation to all criminal investigations in this country.
It is time for us to know how to evolve, letting go of old ideas of competitive discrimination between OPCs that only disturb investigations, and do not serve the purpose of success in combating the phenomenon of trafficking, which should have only one meaning, that of dismantling and holding those who promote it accountable. Therefore, and remembering a recent appeal, let the PSP work.
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