Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone landed in fresh legal trouble after police at a Portuguese airfield found a shotgun in his bag without proper documentation, the second time in four years the 95-year-old has been caught carrying a firearm at an airport.
Officers from the Airport Division of Portugal's Public Security Police stopped Ecclestone after his private jet touched down at Tires Aerodrome, a small airfield outside Lisbon in the coastal town of Cascais. A routine inspection turned up a shotgun. When police asked for the required permit, known in Portugal as a "blue book," the official documentation needed to transport a firearm, Ecclestone told the Daily Mail he did not have one.
He was detained for what he described as hours before the matter was resolved. No charges, fines, or further legal consequences have been publicly confirmed.
Ecclestone, who ran Formula 1 as its chief executive from 1987 to 2017, did not dispute carrying the weapon. He said he was bringing it from Switzerland to Portugal for clay-pigeon shooting and insisted his guns at home in Portugal are properly licensed.
"I had a gun that I was bringing over from Switzerland to Portugal for clay-pigeon shooting. It's as simple as that. I have guns at home there that are licensed."
He described clearing customs without incident after landing, saying he knew the officers there and faced no problems. A police officer then asked to search his bag separately.
"We cleared customs on arriving here, I know the guys there, and they were fine with everything. No problems. Then a policeman afterwards asked to search the bag. It could have been Ace's fishing tackle for all it looked like, but it wasn't."
Ace is Ecclestone's six-year-old son with his wife, Fabiana Flosi, who is 49. Flosi reportedly traveled to Lisbon afterward to handle matters related to the detention on her husband's behalf.
When officers asked about the blue book, Ecclestone was blunt about his habits.
"They asked if I had a 'blue book', which is apparently the documentation you need, and I told them I never travel with documents like that, any documents at all practically. They said they would arrest me, but after what seemed like hours, we sorted it out, but it has been wall-to-wall aggravation."
That admission, "I never travel with documents like that, any documents at all practically", is a remarkable statement from a man who has now been stopped at two airports on two continents for carrying firearms without proper paperwork.
The Portuguese outlet Correio da Manha first reported the arrest, attributing it to the PSP's Airport Division. But a spokesman for the PSP pushed back on part of the account, telling the Daily Mail:
"Our border control officers haven't made the arrest that's being attributed to them."
The denial was narrow. The spokesman said border control officers specifically were not responsible for the arrest, but did not deny that Ecclestone was detained or that a shotgun was found. Whether another PSP unit or a different agency handled the stop remains unclear. AP News confirmed Ecclestone was detained and later released at Tires Airport near Lisbon for possessing a shotgun without a permit.
Several key questions remain unanswered. Was Ecclestone formally charged or fined? Was the shotgun confiscated or returned? Does he hold a valid firearms transport license in either Switzerland or Portugal? None of that has been addressed publicly.
This is not the first time Ecclestone has been caught carrying a gun at an airport. In May 2022, he was arrested at Viracopos Airport in São Paulo, Brazil, for carrying an unlicensed.32-caliber pistol while boarding a private plane. He claimed at the time that he was unaware the weapon was in his luggage and dismissed the episode as a "silly, tiny little incident." He paid bail and flew to Switzerland, Breitbart reported.
The 2022 incident resulted in a fine. The Portugal episode, at least so far, appears to have ended with a release and no public record of formal charges.
Two airports. Two countries. Two firearms without documentation. And a man who says, on the record, that he "never travels with documents like that." At 95, Ecclestone has earned a long list of accomplishments in motorsport. But the law applies the same at every airport gate, whether you arrive by commercial terminal or private jet, and "I don't carry paperwork" is not a defense any ordinary traveler would get away with twice.
