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Ecclestone Stopped by Police for Taking Shotgun into Portugal
Confirmed
In Short: Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was questioned by police for an hour at Cascais airport after attempting to bring a shotgun into Portugal for a clay pigeon shooting competition.
Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, 95, was stopped and questioned by police at the Tires Aerodrome in Cascais, Portugal, after arriving from Switzerland with a shotgun for a clay pigeon shooting competition.
Ecclestone, who was in charge of F1 for nearly 40 years until 2017, said the Portuguese police were 'very helpful' and denied being arrested.
According to reports, Ecclestone was asked to surrender the weapon and pay a fine of 6,000 Brazilian reals (£1,000) to the local authorities.
This incident marks the second time Ecclestone has encountered airport issues regarding firearms, following a similar event in the past.
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- Ecclestone added he had already taken his shotgun from England to Switzerland and said he anticipated no problems as the airport officials know him "very well".
- However, on arrival he was questioned by police for about an hour and was asked to hand over the weapon as he did not have the official documents to bring it into the country.
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- Ecclestone, who ruled F1 for four decades before he was deposed in 2017, said he spoke to customs officers and “four police” officers for “about an hour”.
- The incident took place on Monday after Ecclestone landed in Cascais – about 20 miles outside of Lisbon – on a flight from Switzerland.
- We went back to the customs, and the police had complained to customs, and the customs officer said, ‘You need to surrender the gun here in Lisbon and then we will look at it there, and do you want to import it?
- So I said, ‘Well we’d better do that’.” Responding to reports he had been arrested, Ecclestone replied: “No.