Portuguese Police Discover Largest-Ever Laboratory Producing Illegal Anabolic Substances

A clandestine laboratory for the mass production of anabolic substances has been identified and dismantled by Portugal’s Judiciary Police (PJ).

In a statement released by the Polícia Judiciária on Monday, September 18, they detailed that operation ‘Corpus Insanus’ was conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Unit (UNCC) in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon.

Eleven search warrants were executed, six of which were domestic and five non-domestic. As a result, the JP discovered: ‘probably the largest identified and located to date’.

The operation had been carried out within the scope of a previous investigation led by DIAP Regional de Lisboa, designed to collect additional evidence.

The two main suspects were arrested in the operation

It involved the crimes of trafficking in prohibited substances and methods, and qualified tax fraud and money laundering, in relation to the illicit laboratory production of anabolic steroids.

During the operation, two arrest warrants were also executed, outside of the act of committing a crime, which resulted in the two main suspects being detained ‘in the act’.

Prohibited substances were also discovered ‘already packaged and labelled’. These included contained ‘cartons, blister packs, holograms, and leaflets’, which the PJ said enabled the products to enter the market. Laboratory equipment and industrial machines for producing the substances were also seized.

Cash and cryptocurrency were seized

More than €250,000 in cash was also confiscated, along with digital assets, namely cryptocurrency. Four luxury vehicles, valued at €300,000 were also impounded.

The detainees were brought before the Central Criminal Investigation Court (TCIC) for their first questioning. Coercive measures of preventive detention were applied to one suspect, and bi-weekly presentations and prohibition of contact were applied to another.

Following the subsequent analysis and competent examinations of the evidence now collected, the investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Unit (UNCC) of the Judiciary Police will continue, in order to fully ascertain the truth and bring the case to a swift conclusion.