![\"Bernie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/XPB_1420702_HiRes.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBernie Ecclestone has reportedly been detained in Portugal over a firearm issue. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBernie Ecclestone has reportedly been detained in Portugal over a firearm issue. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
According to Correio da Manha, the 95-year-old was stopped at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais, near Lisbon, after arriving by private jet from Switzerland on Monday.<\/p>\n
The report said officers from Portugal\u2019s Public Security Police became involved following a routine inspection, with Ecclestone reportedly taken into custody over the firearm.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone has disputed suggestions he was formally arrested, but confirmed he had brought the shotgun into Portugal to take part in clay-pigeon shooting and did not have the paperwork required to transport it into the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a gun that I was bringing over from Switzerland to Portugal for clay-pigeon shooting. It\u2019s as simple as that. I have guns at home there that are licensed,\u201d he told Daily Mail Sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cleared customs on arriving here \u2013 I know the guys there \u2013 and they were fine with everything. No problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen a policeman afterwards asked to search the bag. It could have been [his six-year-old son] Ace\u2019s fishing tackle for all it looked like, but it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ecclestone said the problem emerged when police asked him to produce what he described as a \u201cblue book\u201d covering the weapon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked if I had a \u2018blue book\u2019, which is apparently the documentation you need, and I told them I never travel with documents like that, any documents at all, practically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said they would arrest me, but after what seemed like hours, we sorted it out, but it has been wall-to-wall aggravation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking separately to the Press Association, Ecclestone said he had intended to join a clay-pigeon shooting competition after his wife, Fabiana Flosi, became aware of the event.<\/p>\n
He said he already owned firearms in Switzerland and had brought one with him without realising additional documentation would be needed in Portugal.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone claimed he initially passed through customs before being asked to speak with police, who questioned him about the shotgun and its paperwork.<\/p>\n
Responding directly to reports that he had been arrested, he said: \u201cNo. The police were very helpful and doing all they could to stop us from having to do what we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The firearm was subsequently surrendered in Lisbon while authorities worked through the documentation and import requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now we\u2019ve gone through all this and the people in Lisbon have got the gun,\u201d Ecclestone told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve signed some documents as they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The episode is the second time in four years the former F1 supremo has been questioned by authorities over a firearm while travelling.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone was stopped in Brazil in May 2022 after an unloaded LW Seecamp .32 calibre pistol was discovered in his luggage before a flight from Sao Paulo to Switzerland.<\/p>\n
He said at the time that he owned the handgun but had forgotten it was in his bag, while Brazilian authorities said a businessman had been arrested for possession of a firearm at Campinas airport.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone was later released after paying bail.<\/p>\n
The Briton controlled Formula 1\u2019s commercial operations for several decades before leaving his position in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bernie Ecclestone has reportedly been detained in Portugal over a firearm issue. Image: XPB Images According to Correio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,2061,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-883830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bernie-ecclestone","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}