Ecclestone Gives Up Shotgun at Portuguese Airport

Ecclestone said he had already taken the same gun from England to Switzerland without any problem, and he had not expected trouble in Portugal, where he owns licensed guns. Customs officers let him through, he said, and only afterwards did a police officer ask to search his bag. The officers wanted a "blue book", the official document needed to import a firearm. Ecclestone said he never travels with papers like that. Reports about what happened next do not agree. Portuguese media said he had been arrested, but Ecclestone denied this and described the police as "very helpful". The Public Security Police said its border officers had arrested nobody, and pointed to the customs authority in Lisbon instead.

Ecclestone said his wife, Fabiana Flosi, had travelled to Lisbon to give up the gun or pay the duty needed to bring it in legally. This is not the first time a weapon has caused him trouble at an airport. In 2022 he was arrested in Brazil for illegally carrying a handgun onto a private plane, and had to pay 6,000 Brazilian reais, about £1,000.