After 11 years in Colvale, drug convict to complete rest of term in Portugal

Panaji: In a first, a Portuguese national convicted in a narcotics case and served 11 years of his 15-year sentence at Colvale central jail, has been transferred to Portugal to complete the remainder of his term.Ivan Miguel Falcao Patricio was transferred to Portugal under the Council of Europe’s convention on transfer of sentenced persons. The Indian ministry of home affairs approved the transfer, and Portugal deputed two officers to escort him to their country.State govt handed Falcao over to the Portuguese authorities in Mumbai as per their request, after they informed govt that there was some difficulty arranging flights to Goa, even with a stopover in a third country.The MHA then asked Goa if it was willing to execute the transfer in Mumbai.The case relates to 2014, when then ANC PSI Dinesh Gadekar, the investigating officer, received reliable information that a male foreigner aged 30-35 of fair complexion and average height would be showing up to deliver drugs to prospective customers at a football ground in Mandrem.Gadekar and some other officers proceeded to the spot, and saw Patricio coming towards the ground.The officers then surrounded him and introduced themselves. He was informed about the information received, and that they would be conducting a search on him. During the search, the officers found one transparent autopress polythene packet containing a whitish-brownish crystal form substance, one autopress polythene packet containing whitish powder, and one whitish plastic bottle with a white cap containing some liquid.The officers carried out tests with a drug detection kit they had brought along and found that one of the substances was MDMA, the whitish powder was cocaine, and the liquid was LSD.