Share to ClassroomEcclestone Hands Over Gun in Portugal
Bernie Ecclestone, 95, was the boss of Formula One motor racing for almost 40 years. On Monday he flew from Switzerland to a small airport near Lisbon, in Portugal. He was carrying a shotgun for a clay-pigeon shooting competition. Police and customs officers stopped him and questioned him for about an hour. In the end he had to give up the gun, because he did not have the papers that Portugal requires for bringing a weapon into the country.
Ecclestone said he had taken the same gun from England to Switzerland with no problem. He owns legal guns in Portugal. Customs let him through, he said, and then a police officer asked to look in his bag. The officers wanted a "blue book", the official document you need to import a weapon. Ecclestone said he never travels with papers like that. Reports do not agree about what happened next. Portuguese media said he was arrested, but Ecclestone denied this and said the police were "very helpful".
His wife, Fabiana Flosi, went to Lisbon to hand over the gun or pay the tax to bring it in legally. It is not the first time. In 2022, police in Brazil arrested him for illegally carrying a gun onto a private plane.
