Former Porto police officer 'Joca' sentenced to 8 years 6 months for cocaine trafficking

The verdict

The Tribunal de São João Novo in Porto convicted Alberto Couto, a former PSP officer known as 'Joca', on 12 November 2026. Most reports give a sentence of eight years and six months, while two headlines give eight years and eight and a half years. The court ordered him and the other convicted defendants to remain in preventive detention, a measure they were already under. He was also ordered to pay back more than 240,000 euros to the state.

The court's ruling rejected the defence's account. The judges found it proven that the convicted defendants took part in a scheme to traffic cocaine internationally.

“The defendants acted in joint effort and shared will.”

Charges and the defence

Alberto Couto had been charged with drug trafficking, criminal association and money laundering. Late in the trial, the prosecution conceded it did not have enough evidence for criminal association, but it kept its case for international cocaine trafficking and asked for eight of the accused to be convicted. The court acquitted all defendants of criminal association.

His lawyer, Artur Marques, argued that the facts amounted only to an attempted trafficking, which he said was not punishable under the law, and asked for acquittal. The court did not accept this line of defence.

How the network allegedly worked

According to the prosecution, the group imported cocaine from Brazil hidden in agricultural machinery or in ship hulls bound for the Leixões port in Matosinhos. Divers were allegedly hired to recover drugs from the hulls, and GPS trackers placed with the cargo let the group always know where it was. Other reports say the cocaine was concealed among legal goods, with contacts in port activity easing its entry. The prosecution argued that Couto used knowledge and contacts from his police career to help the group operate.

Arrests and co-defendants

Police arrested seven of the suspects in May 2024. At the time, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) said the group was one of the main drug trafficking networks in the north of the country.

“The case concerns an organised criminal structure, with ramifications in South America, that handled the import, transport and delivery of the illicit substances.”

Reports differ on the number of co-defendants, with figures of 11 and 12 given. Six or seven were convicted, with sentences from six years and six months up to seven years and six months, and five were acquitted. The trial opened on 22 September, and Couto did not give a statement in court at its start.