Madeleine McCann case: prime suspect speaks for the first time — “I was selling drugs! Police stopped me three times”

The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann revealed he was selling drugs 150 meters from the resort where the little girl vanished.

Speaking for the first time about his movements that night, Christian Brueckner said he was selling drugs on a beach near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal’s Algarve, where Madeleine’s family was staying the night she disappeared. He denies any connection to the 3-year-old’s case.

German police had named him as the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of Madeleine, who disappeared in 2007 while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were dining 100 meters away.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, he described how police stopped him in a van full of drugs as he tried to flee Praia da Luz the night the child disappeared.

“I was on the beach, not far from her hotel, selling drugs,” he said.

“I had been in Spain and had smuggled cannabis into Portugal. The police even stopped me three times on the road while they were looking for Mandy. Fortunately, they didn’t find the drugs. My van was full of it,” he added.

Brueckner also said he had refused to comment on his suspected connection to Madeleine’s disappearance because, in his view, the police wanted to blame him for the case.

He himself had told the Ministry of Education: “I have nothing to do with the girl’s disappearance. I would be happy if she appeared tomorrow, then everyone would immediately understand that everything against me is fabricated.”