“The woman and the three men now in preventive detention were added to the 14 men and three women in the gang who are already in preventive detention”, according to a press release published on the Faro Public Ministry portal.

According to the note, on December 15, the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Faro presented to the Criminal Investigation Court of the Algarve capital, for the first interrogation of the detained defendants, four men and a woman “belonging to a gang dedicated to the sale of cocaine, heroin and hashish in São Brás de Alportel”.

The woman, aged 43, and three men, aged 25, 22 and 19, were placed in pre-trial detention.

According to the Public Ministry, since 2022, in São Brás de Alportel, the head of the now detained group “distributed the narcotic product to the remaining members of the gang, whose function was to sell directly to consumers and other resellers”.

The note states that among the members of the gang “there was one who, in addition to the aforementioned tasks, was responsible for storing the drugs and collecting the money from sales”.

The four detainees join 17 others arrested on July 8 on suspicion of belonging to the drug trafficking network operating in the Algarve region.

At the time, the GNR, which is in charge of investigating this case, also stated that the 17 detainees, 14 men and three women, aged between 19 and 60, allegedly belonged to a network of drug trafficking that operated with particular incidence in the municipalities of São Brás de Alportel, Loulé, Faro, Olhão and Tavira, all in the district of Faro.

According to the note, the arrests resulted from an investigation that had been ongoing for around a year by the GNR's Faro Criminal Investigation Unit (NIC).