The Judicial Police have arrested two foreign nationals and seized approximately two thousand kilograms of cannabis in an investigation focused on greenhouses in the Mação municipality, specifically in the Ortiga industrial zone.
Investigations revealed that a criminal group, comprising both national and foreign citizens, infiltrated several companies licensed for the wholesale trade, import, and export of medicinal cannabis. They acquired multiple pharmaceutical companies to exploit the system's vulnerabilities.
Exploiting gaps in Portugal's medicinal cannabis export control system, the group allegedly shipped thousands of kilograms to illicit markets using falsified documentation and certificates. Notably, the product is identical to that sold illegally.
The targeted greenhouses, searched last week in an operation named Ortiga, belong to the sole proprietorship Greatsoul Pharma Portugal. The company's foundation stone was laid in 2021, with the then-mayor of Mação, Vasco Estrela, highlighting the municipality's commitment to the project, which promised a three-million-euro investment and 25 new jobs.
Greatsoul Pharma was touted as one of Europe's largest and most technologically advanced medicinal cannabis production facilities, operational by the following year on an eight-thousand-square-meter site, partly on land provided by the Ortiga Parish Council.
Suspicions arose that Greatsoul sold production surpluses on the illicit market, dispatching cannabis sativa to both European and African countries. The two detainees, British national Darrell Andrew Payas, the company's owner, and manager Stefano Rosa, were released pending further proceedings. Payas also holds shares in a food delivery platform in Gibraltar.
The operation was conducted by the National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, in collaboration with the Infarmed, Portugal's National Authority of Medicines and Health Products.
Attempts to contact Vasco Estrela, now vice-president of the Central Regional Coordination Commission, and the Ortiga Parish Council president were unsuccessful. Efforts to reach Greatsoul Pharma for comment are ongoing.
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