Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone has blasted Portuguese authorities for putting him through “wall-to-wall aggravation” after he was stopped for bringing a shotgun into the country aboard his private jet without the proper paperwork.
The 95-year-old former F1 boss was reportedly detained at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais, near Lisbon, after flying in from Switzerland.
Ecclestone admitted he was carrying the shotgun and did not have the documentation Portuguese authorities required, but insisted there was nothing sinister about the weapon.
He said he had simply brought it along to go clay-pigeon shooting.
“I had a gun that I was bringing over from Switzerland to Portugal for clay-pigeon shooting. It’s as simple as that,” Ecclestone told the Daily Mail.
Ecclestone said he already keeps legally licensed firearms at his home in Portugal and initially believed his arrival had gone smoothly.
According to him, customs officials cleared him without any trouble before another officer later asked to inspect his luggage.
Ecclestone said the bag could have looked like it contained his six-year-old son Ace’s fishing equipment, but officers instead discovered the shotgun.
Authorities then asked whether he had a “blue book,” which Ecclestone said he was told was required documentation for transporting the weapon.
He admitted he did not have it.
“I never travel with documents like that, any documents at all practically,” he said.
Ecclestone claimed officers threatened to arrest him and that the ordeal dragged on for what felt like hours before the situation was eventually worked out.
“It has been wall-to-wall aggravation,” he complained.
His wife, Fabiana Flosi, is now reportedly trying to resolve the issue with Portuguese authorities.
Ecclestone said Flosi traveled to Lisbon to either surrender the weapon, pay any required tax or fee, or otherwise make sure the shotgun is legally dealt with.
He said he considered going with her but instead remained at home waiting for the entire episode to be “put to bed.”
Flight-tracking data reportedly showed a private jet arriving in Cascais at 10:55 p.m. from Saanen, Switzerland, where Ecclestone owns a ski chalet reportedly worth around £23 million.
His Dassault Falcon 7X private jet has been valued by aviation experts at roughly £30 million.
The latest gun headache is not Ecclestone’s first.
In May 2022, he was detained in Brazil after authorities discovered an illegally carried handgun in his luggage as he prepared to board a private plane.
Ecclestone acknowledged owning the weapon but claimed at the time that he had forgotten it was inside his baggage.
He was later released after posting bail and allowed to travel to Switzerland.
Ecclestone dismissed that incident as a “silly, tiny little incident,” though he again complained that it had caused significant aggravation for him and his family.
Brazilian officials said a businessman was arrested for firearm possession at Campinas airport, although Ecclestone later disputed that he had technically been placed under formal arrest.
He said the gun in that case was a LW Seecamp .32 handgun that he had purchased years earlier from someone involved in Formula One in Brazil.
Ecclestone claimed he bought the weapon without ammunition and kept it primarily as a deterrent in case someone tried to rob him.
He also admitted that he would occasionally joke around with the unloaded gun when visitors came to his house.
Ecclestone has significant ties to Portugal.
Earlier this year, Portuguese media reported that his wife purchased a luxury mansion in the exclusive Quinta da Marinha area of Cascais for approximately £35 million.
The purchase was described by newspaper Correio da Manha as the largest private residential sale ever completed in Portugal.
The mansion is located about 15 miles west of Lisbon, and reports said Flosi agreed to buy the property after roughly six months of negotiations.
Questions remain over exactly which Portuguese agency handled Ecclestone’s latest airport encounter.
A spokesman for Portugal’s PSP police force denied that its border officers made the reported arrest.
The force said the incident instead involved Portugal’s Tax and Customs Authority and directed questions to that agency.
Customs officials were not immediately available to provide further details.
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