The Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) supports the application of penalties of imprisonment for crimes of drug trafficking and aggravated common, considering that the suspension of sentences in these cases "would be prejudicial to the need for national and international strategy to combat this type of crime."

This position has been defended in recent judgments that examined the possible suspension of sentences of two people from South America, to Spain, nationals intercepted at airports in possession of cocaine. In both decisions, unanimous in different criminal sections, the directors require strong punitive responses to drug trafficking and refused to suspend the sentences of four and five years in prison - the new Criminal Code allows penalties of up to five years be suspended.

Only in special situations or where the unfairness of the fact proves diminished and a sense of social disapproval is shown dimmed, it will be permissible where the concept of suspending the sentence of imprisonment, "reads one of the cases of 19 December 2007, which also reveals that the processes of drug couriers who come to the court have been increasing (see box).

In the latest decision of 9 April, which reduced in ten months and set a five-year sentence to a Spanish picked at Oporto airport with cocaine, highlighted the position of Portugal on the routes of drug trafficking.

'We can not consider a strong need for general prevention felt, given the increasing number of crimes of trafficking in Portugal, considered the dissemination hub for Europe', say the advisers, adding: "This struggle is particularly difficult because our extensive coastline, which is compounded by the elimination of internal border controls within the process of European integration '.

Post Drug

The Post Office have complex detection system matches banned for not serve as a "mule" indirect dealers. Letters and parcels can go through modern equipment before reaching the sender.

As the volume of correspondence is immense, the inspection is done at random - the percentage of samples tends to be greater if the source and destination have a higher incidence of trafficking. Letters or packages are via an X-ray similar to that used in airports, which distinguishes organic compounds of different colors. A volume of organic product within a stuffed animal, for example, generates immediate suspicion.

The pre-selected loads are evaluated by the mass spectrometer, a device that captures ions of the order by means of heating by friction. Each substance corresponds to a certain speed of the ions, which can accurately identify the existing drug in order.

The Post Office can not open a connection, but suspected cases trigger the federal police, who can simply seize the product or make a "controlled delivery" - monitor the fate of the material to hold the receiver in the act.
According to the head of security at Post Office Postal Paulo, Carlos Amaral, the states with the greatest concentration of letters intercepted by the drug are Mato Grosso, Acre and Rondonia (as source) and Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (as destination). There are also international routes of cocaine coming from neighboring countries producing coca or just pass through Brazil and Africa to follow, where they are distributed to Europe.

Most of the illegal delivery is split, so that traffickers avoid large individual losses. "A consignment may be inspected at the source, warehouse and destination. Today it is difficult to pass something. "

Every two days to arrive at Portuguese airports 'drug couriers'. They are mostly men and from 15 to 25 percent carry the drugs inside the body.
The cases of the ailment called "mules" will stop our hospitals and are 'common'. Some even lose their lives in this dangerous trade.

"The drug trafficking by air grew in the first half of this year. Organizations returned to invest in this transport to bring the goods in Europe", told the Daily Portugal José Braz, director of the Central Agency for Research on Trafficking in Drugs of the Judicial Police (DCITE). If during the years 2005 to PJ, the air traffic, took more than three thousand grams of heroin, 500 tons of cocaine and 13 thousand of hashish, the first half of 2006 already has more than 10 thousand of heroin, 427 thousand cocaine and 28 thousand of hashish.

With the increase of traffic also increases the recruitment of "mules". During 2005 were held 243 posts, 190 men and 53 women. In the first half of this year the PJ already detected 132 individuals.

Venezuelans are on top of nationalities with 79 "mules" caught in the last year and a half, but the Portuguese are followed with 60 held by this type of trafficking.