The Situation Report Azores Wednesday 19^th July 2023

Human bones found on the coastline of São Miguel in the Azores

The Maritime Police of Ponta Delgada, island of São Miguel, found “human bones” on the coastline of the parish of Relva, but whose origin is still unknown.

In a statement, the National Maritime Authority said that the bones were discovered by a member of the public on Saturday afternoon, who alerted the local command of the Ponta Delgada Maritime Police.

However, despite the steps taken, it was only possible to find the bones this Sunday.

“In view of the sea conditions and the lack of visibility at the site, it was not possible to locate the human bones”, says the same statement, adding that the searches were resumed on Sunday morning, culminating in the discovery of the human bones, which are presumed to be belong to the same person, along the coastline.

According to the National Maritime Authority, the bones were transported by the Volunteer Firefighters of Ponta Delgada to the Institute of Legal Medicine.

The case will now be investigated by the Ponta Delgada Maritime Police Command.

Five arrested suspected of drug trafficking in São Jorge

Three people were held in preventive detention and two with a term of identity and residence because they were suspected of belonging to an alleged drug trafficking network that operated in São Jorge, in the Azores.

According to the Regional Command of the PSP of the Azores, the suspects, arrested “in flagrante delicto” on the 9^th of July, are four men aged between 24 and 57 years and a woman aged 48 years.

The police believe that it was “possible to dismantle a drug trafficking network operating in the municipality of Velas”, after an investigation carried out “over several months”.

It was possible to seize “2,202 individual doses of hashish, 128 individual doses of cannabis, ready for consumption, a monetary amount of 3,636.06 euros, reproductions of firearms and other weapons”, in addition to “objects related to trafficking”, he adds. to PSP in a press release.

The network allegedly operated from two residences located in Vila das Velas, a place “where a significant number of consumers went solely for the purpose of purchasing a narcotic product”, adds the PSP.

The alleged organized group was led by two suspects, who acted in cooperation with two other elements responsible for storing the product and a third suspect who transported the drug by sea to the island of São Jorge.

During this operation, two arrest warrants outside of flagrante delicto, three house search and seizure warrants and two non-domestic search warrants in the municipality of Velas were served. A house search warrant was also served in the municipality of Praia da Vitória, on Terceira Island.

The detainees were present at the first judicial interrogation at the Velas Judicial Court.

The operation involved the police from the Velas Police Station, in close collaboration with the Calheta (São Jorge) Police Station, the Criminal Investigation Police Station from Angra do Heroísmo and Praia da Vitória (both on Terceira Island) and the Cinotechnical Operational Group of the Força Destacada, of the Special Police Unit.

 

The Azores Situation Report Wednesday 12^th July 2023

Magnitude 3.3 earthquake on the Richter scale felt in Faial.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.3 on the Richter scale was felt on Monday on the island of Faial, in the Azores, according to the Information and Seismo-volcaeic Surveillance Centre of the Azores (CIVISA).

According to CIVISA, the earthquake was recorded at 6:51 pm and had an epicentre about 23 kilometres west-northwest (WNW) of Capelo, on the island of Faial.

“According to the information available so far, the earthquake was felt with maximum intensity III/IV (Modified Mercalli scale) in the parishes of Castelo Branco, Flamengos and Matriz (Horta municipality)”, indicates CIVISA in a statement.

Inauguration of the Biological Waste Treatment Centre in São Miguel

The municipalities of the island of São Miguel, in the Azores, today inaugurated a Centre for the Biological Treatment of Waste, an investment of 7.6 million euros that will make it possible to value waste that until now was considered “undifferentiated”.

Until today, the waste produced in our kitchens was placed in landfills. They had no appreciation of any kind. We are talking about 30% of the total waste produced on the island of São Miguel, which was considered undifferentiated”, said the president of Musami, the company that manages waste from the six municipalities of the island of São Miguel, Ricardo Rodrigues.

According to the official, the installation now inaugurated, and which cost 7.6 million euros, “will treat and value this waste, transforming it into around 4,500 tons of compost” that farmers can use on the land.

Flores and Corvo with orange warning due to heavy precipitation

The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) raised the warning issued for the Western group of the Azores to orange, due to the forecast, from the end of the day, of intensified precipitation.

“The passage of a depression with an associated frontal system will cause a worsening of the weather, especially in the islands of the Western group”, says a statement from the IPMA delegation in the Azores, signed by meteorologist Carolina Medeiros.

According to the IPMA, the rain could be heavy on the islands of Flores and Corvo “from the end of Tuesday”, so it raises the alert level to orange in that group of the Azorean archipelago.

The IPMA had issued a yellow warning for the islands of Flores and Corvo, now raising it to orange, the second most serious on the scale, issued in “a meteorological situation of moderate to high risk”.

Thus, the islands of Flores and Corvo will be under an orange warning between 18:00 today and 00:00 on Wednesday, a period in which there may be precipitation, sometimes heavy, accompanied by thunder.

The IPMA also issued yellow warnings for the islands of the Central (Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, Graciosa and Faial) and Eastern (São Miguel and Santa Maria) groups because of the sometimes-heavy precipitation, which may be accompanied by thunderstorms.

For the Central group, the yellow warning will be in effect between 18:00 today and 12:00 on Wednesday.

In São Miguel and Santa Maria, the yellow warning will be active between 6 pm today and 9 am on Wednesday, adds the IPMA statement.

The yellow warning, the least severe on a scale of three, is issued by the IPMA whenever there is a risk situation for certain activities depending on the weather situation.

In view of these forecasts, the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service of the Azores recommends that self-protection measures be taken.

The Civil Protection of the Azores advises, among other measures, the consolidation of roofs, doors and windows, as well as the cleaning of drainage systems adjacent to houses.

Storing loose objects in the garden, closing doors, windows and shutters well, are other measures recommended by the Civil Protection on its official website on the internet.

The Azorean Civil Protection also advises against unnecessary circulation, considering the possibility of the formation of water tables.

 

The Azores Situation Report Wednesday 28^th June 2023

SATA Air Açores plane struck by lightning.

The Azorean airline revealed this Friday that a SATA Air Açores plane was struck by lightning, which is why the company will have to reorganize the operation.

“As a result of lightning hitting a SATA Air Açores plane, for technical reasons the said aircraft will have to be inspected, so we inform you that today SATA Air Açores will have to reorganize the operation”, reveals the company in informative note.

It also adds that, given these circumstances, it is making every effort to re-accommodate passengers on alternative connections, as soon as possible and in accordance with the availability of seats that present themselves at any given time.

Effects of Canadian fires affect Azores since Sunday

The cloud of smoke particles from the fires in Canada has been affecting the Azores islands since Sunday and should extend to the mainland in the next few hours, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).

In a statement, the IPMA says that the concentrations of these pollutants are below established legal limits and, therefore, should not represent any threat to human health.

According to the institute, this cloud is “made up of very small particles and gases (especially carbon monoxide) resulting from the fires that have affected the territory of Canada over the last few weeks”.

“According to simulations of the prediction model of the CAMS service (Copernicus program), this cloud appears to be confined above 1,100 meters in altitude and therefore should not affect populations below this level”, he indicates.

However, the Institute points out that this cloud should cause a reduction in the visibility and brightness of the Sun, as well as the blue tone of the sky.

The IPMA recalls that the forest fires that have been plaguing Canada for weeks have emitted significant amounts of gases and particles into the atmosphere that are transported and dispersed by the winds.

“A cyclonic circulation, associated with a depression centered northwest of the Azores, will have promoted the large-scale transport of these pollutants, mainly carbon monoxide, along the North Atlantic, having reached the Azores region last Tuesday, 13th of June”, says the Institute.

 

The Azores Situation Report Wednesday 21^st June 2023

PJ seized in 2023 in the Azores drugs equivalent to 90% of the total for 2022.

The Judiciary Police seized in the Azores, in the first six months of the year, 78 kilos of drugs, mostly hashish, but also cocaine, heroin and synthetic substances, in an amount equivalent to 90% of the total for 2022, said the regional coordinator.

“In 2022, there was a very significant increase in seizures: 60% more than in 2021. In the first half of this year, we already seized an amount equivalent to 90% of last year’s total”, said the coordinator of the Judiciary Police (PJ).

In 2022 the security force seized more than 88 kilos of drugs in the region, enough for more than 216 thousand doses.

These substances were introduced into the Azorean archipelago “by air, through the postal circuit, and by sea, in the case of the importation of goods “, where the narcotic product may be concealed, and “through drug couriers by air”.

The coordinator said that “the seizure of hashish prevails”, the narcotic substance “most sought after and consumed” in the Azores, as well as in the national and international whole.

In the last three years, “a set of more than 53,000 doses of synthetic substances for consumption” in the region and which were imported were seized.

In 2023, a very significant amount of methamphetamine was also seized, close to 20,000 doses, an “ultra-potent synthetic drug that is also sold in the region”.

The official described that from 2019 there has been an increase in the level of seizures of these substances, especially methamphetamines that are even produced in the region, although “on a small scale”, in small laboratories located in homes.

Consumers resort to these new psychoactive substances (NSP) because “they are easy to buy” over the internet, with prices “lower than conventional drugs”, but which can have similar effects.

According to Renato Furtado, the problem “is not confined to Ponta Delgada”, but is found mainly in São Miguel, the largest island in the Azores.

“The north coast of São Miguel also has quite significant problems”, he pointed out.

Also, according to the official, “there has been some increase in violent crime in recent years”, starting in 2019, and “almost half of the perpetrators of these crimes were drug users in the Azores”.

Renato Furtado underlined that the PJ in the archipelago focuses on the entry points for drugs in the region, by air and sea.

“We know that the region is a crossing point for large amounts of narcotics destined for the European continent. This is also our concern, as well as entry via postal circuit”, he maintained.

At stake, he underlined, is a global, regional and local phenomenon: “There has been a significant increase in seizures of different types of drugs everywhere – in Portugal [at national level] and also in the Azores.”

Also, the intendant of the Regional Command of the PSP Ruben Medeiros told Lusa that that police force has seen, since 2020, “an increase in the quantities of material seized, specifically the so-called synthetic drugs and NSP”, imported.

“We are not talking about astronomical amounts, but there has been an upward trend in the amounts seized by the PSP, with a higher prevalence on the island of São Miguel of consumption and small-scale trafficking”, he said, in an interview with Lusa.

Asked about drug trafficking in some places of great movement of people, in the city of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, the official assured that the PSP “focuses greater preventive and repressive attention on these areas”.

“The phenomenon can be overcome, but it appears that there is a transfer to another location. The PSP is attentive to criminal dynamics, both in terms of schedules and in terms of geographic space and acts”, he reinforced.

Ruben Medeiros admitted that drug use can lead to the practice of a certain type of crime, namely theft or violence.

Incident between a car and a SATA plane in Ponta Delgada

An incident with a vehicle from the catering company, during the operation of refuelling an aircraft, at Ponta Delgada airport, caused the temporary immobilization of the Azores Airlines aircraft.

This incident forced the airline to reorganize its air operations, raising the possibility of cancelling some of the planned flights.

Tennis player Novak Djokovic on vacation in the Azores

Serbian Novak Djokovic, considered by many to be one of the best tennis players of all time, is on vacation on the island of São Miguel, along with his wife, Jelena Djokovic.