LISBON: Portuguese authorities have arrested a police captain and an accomplice suspected of running a drug operation that imported at least three containers of animal skins with 1.5 metric tons of cocaine hidden between the putrid layers of untanned skins.

A spokesperson at the Judicial Police for the Northern Region said on Thursday the stench had complicated the work of investigating teams as they removed and weighed the drugs.

The skins had been packed fresh in Latin America and arrived in Portugal after weeks at sea in a “highly putrefied state,” the spokesperson said.

The arrested officer has been on a long unpaid leave from a GNR police unit in the northern city of Fafe. Local media said the same officer had led an operation to dismantle a major drug ring in Fafe two years ago.

Portuguese police, acting in cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, had discovered the haul at the port of Leixoes but allowed the containers to be picked up and followed them to a warehouse in Fafe, where they found other drugs, illicit guns and thousands of euros in cash.