Bernie Ecclestone has been arrested in Portugal on suspicion of illegally carrying a gun.

The former F1 CEO, 95, was reportedly arrested at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais, near Lisbon, for carrying a shotgun when he landed his private jet.

Airport police are understood to have made the arrest during a ‘routine operation’.

Portugal’s Airport Division of the Public Security Police (PSP) has not yet officially commented.

He has not been charged.

It is the second time in four years that he has been arrested. Ecclestone was previously detained in Sao Paolo, Brazil, for carrying a gun while boarding a private jet to Switzerland in 2022.

He admitted to carrying the gun but said he was unaware the weapon was in his luggage.

The business magnate was later freed after paying bail and allowed to travel to Switzerland.

He later described the event as a ‘silly, tiny little incident’ and denied being formally arrested, although Brazilian authorities confirmed that an unnamed businessman had been arrested for possession of a firearm at the Campinas airport.

He said he had bought the LW Seecamp .32 from a Formula One mechanic in Brazil without ammunition and claimed he carried it as a deterrent.

‘They said you need something like this,’ he said. ‘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.’

Ecclestone, originally from the UK, splits his time between Switzerland and Portugal, where he owns property, and Brazil.

has contacted PSP for more information.

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