Bernie Ecclestone Detained Over Undocumented Shotgun in Portugal

Bernie Ecclestone, the man who once ruled Formula One with an iron grip, found himself on the other side of official scrutiny again on Monday – this time in Portugal, and once again because of a gun.

The 95-year-old was detained at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais after customs officers discovered an undocumented shotgun in his possession during a routine inspection of his private jet. Multiple authorities have confirmed the incident.

Ecclestone had just landed when the search of the aircraft and its passengers uncovered the firearm. Under Portuguese procedure, the gun was seized and Ecclestone was made a formal defendant in criminal proceedings, a standard step in such cases. What happens next in his case remains unclear.

Reports quickly suggested he had been arrested. Ecclestone pushed back on that description, telling PA Media: “No. The police were very helpful and doing all they could to stop us from having to do what we had to do.”

He then laid out his version of events in typically blunt fashion.

Ecclestone said he had flown in to take part in a clay pigeon shooting competition in Portugal, an invitation that came at short notice after his wife, Fabiana, met a fellow competitor on a flight from Brazil.

“So she called me and said, ‘There is something here you should go and look at. Why don’t you turn up and join?’ And I said, ‘Well, that wouldn’t be a bad idea’,” he explained.

With that, Ecclestone decided to travel with a shotgun he already owned and kept in Switzerland, a weapon he said had been imported there “properly” for clay shooting.

He described a relaxed passage through customs at the aerodrome.

“I went through customs and the people know me very well. They said, ‘Anything to declare?’ I said, ‘No, nothing really, just all the usual personal things’,” he said. “So I walked out and, as I got out, one of my people with me said, ‘The police have asked if you would go and see them’.”

The tone changed once he met the officers.

“I went to see the police and said, ‘What can I do for you?’ And they said, ‘We would like some information on this gun you brought in’,” Ecclestone recalled.

He said he never even opened the gun case before being questioned about documentation.

“They asked where is the blue book for the gun? And I said, ‘I don’t know, I have never heard about a blue book in my life’,” he said. “They said, ‘Yes, well anyone with these guns should always have the book, it is like a passport. Incidentally, I want to look at your passport, too,’ which they took.”

Ecclestone told officers he had bought the shotgun in England and taken it into Switzerland through “all the normal channels”, but the lack of the so-called blue book became the crux of the problem.

“There were about four police guys and they said, ‘What you have done is try to import a gun into the country’. I said, ‘I have not tried to do that. I have come through customs, and here I am with you’,” he said.

The standoff moved back to customs, where officials set out his options.

“The customs officer said, ‘You need to surrender the gun here in Lisbon and then we will look at it there, and do you want to import it? And if so, you will have to pay duty on it and ask for a temporary import, and we will deal with it like that’. So I said, ‘Well we’d better do that’.”

For Ecclestone, brushes with airport security and firearms are becoming an uncomfortable theme.

In May 2022, he was arrested in Brazil after an undeclared LW Seecamp .32-calibre pistol was found in his luggage by an X-ray scan at Viracopos Airport in Campinas, as he prepared to board a private jet to Switzerland. He admitted owning the gun but said he did not know it was in his bag. He posted bail and was released to continue his journey.

Portugal has become a significant backdrop to Ecclestone’s later life. His wife, Fabiana Flosi, has been linked to a major property purchase about 15 miles west of Lisbon, reportedly the largest private house sale in the country at around £35m.

For decades, Ecclestone’s name was synonymous with Formula One’s rise from a niche pursuit to a global entertainment machine. Involved in the sport since the 1950s, first as a driver and businessman, then as a team owner and the key broker of television rights, he built an empire from the paddock outwards.

He dominated the commercial and political landscape of F1, stitching together sponsorship deals and race contracts that reshaped the calendar and the sport’s finances. His formal reign ended in 2017 when Liberty Media bought the commercial rights and moved him aside.

Yet even in semi-retirement, and far from the grid, Ecclestone continues to generate headlines – this time not for a deal struck in a boardroom, but for a shotgun stopped at customs in Cascais.