Online Reporter
The 95-year-old British business magnate is said to have been arrested at a Portuguese aerodrome for carrying a shotgun when he landed his private jet.
The former F1 boss was being held at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais, near Lisbon, Correio de Manha reported.
Airport cops are understood to have arrested Ecclestone during a “routine operation”.
Portugal‘s Airport Division of the Public Security Police (PSP) has yet to officially comment.
He was detained in Brazil for carrying a gun as he boarded a private jet to Switzerland just four years ago.
In 2022, Ecclestone admitted to carrying the gun after he was detained in Sao Paulo, but said he had been unaware it had been in his luggage.
He was then freed and allowed to jet off to Switzerland after paying bail.
Ecclestone later called the arrest a “silly, tiny little incident”, adding that it had caused a lot of aggravation as he tried to fly back to Europe with his family.
He also denied he had been formally arrested, despite Brazilian authorities confirming that a businessman it didn’t name had been arrested for possession of a firearm at the Campinas airport.
The ex-motorsport boss went on to say he had bought the LW Seecamp .32 from a Formula One mechanic without any ammo years ago in Brazil.
Ecclestone said he only carried the weapon as a deterrent.
He added: “They said you need something like this.
“It might work if someone tried to mug you or something. So I bought it from the guy.
“I had it in the house and used to muck around with it if people came to visit me or something, we would joke around.”
After his recent reported arrest, it is not yet known if he will be charged or brought before a judge.
A spokesman for the PSP police force, which according to Portuguese media reports made the arrest, said: “Our border control officers haven’t made the arrest that’s being attributed to them.”
The force said: “We inform you that this concerns an occurrence involving the Tax and Customs Authority – Lisbon Delegation (Customs), and you should therefore request clarification from that entity.”- Sun.
Customs’ officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
The former F1 CEO splits his time between Switzerland and Portugal, owning homes in both countries, as well as Brazil.
Ecclestone helped bring F1 back to Portugal in 1984.
He agreed to pay £652million after avoiding jail for failing to declare overseas assets in 2022.
Ecclestone failed to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account containing around £400m.
The tycoon pleaded guilty to a single charge of fraud and was later sentenced to 17 months in prison, suspended for two years – Sun.
