Following the trend, which has been verified since 2000, the number of heroin seizures decreased and now ranks below hashish and cocaine. However, the number seizures increased for all substances in comparison to previous years. For the third time since 1990, the number of hashish seizures again surpassed that of heroin, the substance that always registered the highest number of seizures in Portugal until 2002, and for the first time the number of cocaine seizures also surpassed that of heroin.

The seized quantities of heroin and ecstasy registered increases in comparison to 2004. The seized quantities of hashish registered a small decrease and the seized quantities of cocaine were the highest ever registered, more than doubling again, in comparison to 2004.

 Seizures, by year and by type of drug (IDT 2006)

Concerning countries of origin of the seized drugs, heroin came mainly from The Netherlands and Turkey, cocaine from Columbia and Brazil, hashish from Morocco, herbal cannabis (liamba) from Angola and ecstasy from The Netherlands. 79% of the seized cocaine was directed towards the external market.

 

Regarding the prices of drugs at trafficker and trafficker-user level the mean prices of heroin, hashish and ecstasy were the lowest reported since 2002, contrary to cocaine which registered in 2005 the highest price since 2002. Both cocaine and ecstasy have been increasing prices, in general, since 2002 and cocaine is now again priced higher that heroin.