Public prosecutors open investigation into ‘drug-trafficking trailer’ found with minister’s building contractor

The Portuguese Public Prosecution Service (MP) has opened an investigation after a trailer seized during a major drug-trafficking operation was discovered in the possession of a businessman/ civil construction contractor described as a friend of Minister of Interior Administration, Luís Neves.

PJ Judicial Police have confirmed in a statement that the articulated trailer, seized during Operation Pacoba in December 2024, was located three days ago in Barcelos.

The trailer was found in the possession of João Carvalho – the civil construction contractor who has been identified in various national media reports as a friend of Neves – the former national director of the PJ, who became interior minister earlier this year.

According to the PJ, the trailer is back in the police custody from which it vanished last year, together with the goods it was carrying, which it stressed were not narcotics. Portuguese weekly Nascer do Sol, which first reported this rapidly developing case, said the cargo consisted of ammonia.

“The circumstances surrounding the movement of the trailer to Barcelos are under investigation in the inquiry that has been communicated to the Public Prosecution Service,” said the PJ.

The Office of the Attorney General (PGR) separately confirmed “the existence of an investigation relating to assets seized under Operation Pacoba”, writes Expresso.

The trailer originally belonged to Armando Caixeirinho, whom prosecutors identify as the alleged leader of the drug-trafficking network targeted in Operation Pacoba. Caixeirinho has been missing since the operation was launched and is among those charged in the case.

Under Portuguese law, assets seized in criminal investigations may be used by the PJ before a final court ruling if they are deemed to have “operational utility”. Such use requires formal authorisation from the force’s national director (who, at the time the trailer ‘disappeared from PJ custody’, was Luís Neves).

The PJ has not said whether Neves, who headed the force when Operation Pacoba was launched, signed any authorisation allowing the trailer to be used. However, legal sources cited by Expresso suggested that the opening of a criminal investigation indicates there may have been questions over how the vehicle left official custody.

Asked by Expresso about the case, Neves has declined to comment.

The Attorney General’s Office also said prosecutors are examining “other facts reported in the media” and would take whatever investigative steps are considered legally justified.

The statement appeared to indicate that no formal investigation has yet been opened into separate reports concerning construction work carried out on Neves’s Alentejo property by João Carvalho, whose company reportedly received €2.3 million in contracts for works commissioned by the PJ.

This story began focused on João Carvalho’s building work at the Alentejo property (which appears not to have received the necessary authorisations), and has rapidly developed since then, impelling the leader of right-wing party CHEGA – already unhappy with Luís Neves over a separate matter – to call for the minister to ‘leave government with his own feet’, claiming he no longer has any political authority.

Stressing that he believes in Portugal’s institutions, even in these “tough and challenging times”, André Ventura said in what was the final parliamentary session before the summer break: “No matter how powerful those forces may be, no matter how entrenched they are, no matter how deeply rooted they are in political, police, judicial or other institutions, we have a democracy, and we must believe that our democracy works.”

Source material: Expresso/ SIC Notícias/ Lusa