A 20-year-old Portuguese woman was arrested for selling darkweb ecstasy and hashish at trance parties and nightclubs in the city of Pombal

On Thursday 17th of January 2019, the Judicial Police of Pombal in the Leiria District, Portugal has apprehended a 20-year-old woman for drug trafficking. The woman was caught with 101 ecstasy tablets weighing a total of 52.64 grams, hashish weighing 33.42 grams, a precision scale, and other articles used in the cultivation and production of cannabis.

The court affidavit states that the narcotics were intended for consumption and commercialization “in trance parties and other spaces of nighttime entertainment.”

The arrest came as a flagrant operation following a national effort aimed at combating the import of synthetic drugs. The investigation indicates that the ecstasy came from central European countries and arrived in the hands of the young woman through a postal order made through the deep web.

The young unemployed woman was already present at the first judicial interrogation and was bound to appear twice a week to the authorities, as a measure of coercion.

Although Portugal has decriminalized the use of drugs, drug trafficking is still a serious offense. The criminal penal code dictates a sentence of 1-5 years for minor cases of trafficking and 4-12 years for more severe cases. Usually, the severity is determined by the social circumstances and by the type of narcotics involved. Moreso, the punishment is reduced for users who sell drugs to finance their addiction.