Portugal has been a popular destination for free-spirited hippies since the counter-culture heyday of the 1960s.
Fast-forward two generations, and the 21st-century off-gridders still flock to the country.
But some of the communes on the western Algarve have a seedy underbelly of drugs and crime.
It is in that secretive nomadic world that the key to unlock the mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance may lie.
It was revealed yesterday that investigators found a “relevant clue” to the case during their search of an isolated Algarve reservoir frequented by hippies.
Prime suspect Christian Brueckner was a fixture in Portugal’s hippy communities in the mid-2000s. He helped to organise all-night raves in the forests outside Barao de Sao Joao and peddled drugs to nomad partygoers.
Brueckner, 45, also burgled houses, sold flowers in weekend hippy markets and stole fuel to fund his off-grid lifestyle.
When Madeleine went missing from Praia da Luz in May 2007, the German paedophile was living a nomadic lifestyle in a Volkswagen Westfalia camper van.
One of his favourite spots was Praia do Barranco, an isolated beach 20 minutes’ drive from the popular resort. Very few families venture to the beach because of its remoteness and the large waves that batter the coastline.
Instead it has become a popular haunt for surfers and hippy travellers – including those looking to keep a low profile.
One local said: “It’s beautiful but can be proper shady at times. It’s a hippy hangout. They have raves there all the time, not massive ones but they are going all night.
“Every drug imaginable is available if you know the right people.”
When police named Brueckner as a suspect, they released a photo of his van parked up at the beach.
A friend previously said: “He loved it down there. The remoteness, the people, the drugs. It was heaven for him.”
Portugal’s biggest hippy market takes place in Barao de Sao Joao, which is just 10 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz. The village, where German hippies settled in the 70s, is surrounded by hillsides where off-gridders live in camper vans.
Barao became so popular with hippies in the 1970s it was dubbed “Portuguese California”.
German travellers wanting to help with the 1974 revolution lived in tents in the woods.
Brueckner spent time in Barao “sofa-surfing” at the home of a German family when they were away.
He is also understood to have dated a woman who sold flowers at the Sunday hippy market and helped on her stall.
A local has said he plied underage teenage girls with drugs in exchange for sex. The woman, who did not want to be named, said he was known as the “go-to” man for cannabis and class-A drugs, often acting as a middle man for dealers.
She said: “It was a favour exchange. He provided joints and they had sex with him because they had no money.”
In an interview in 2020, fellow hippy Michael Tatschl gave details about Bruckner’s time in the Algarve in the mid 2000s.
The Austrian said: “He had lost the house but he was still enjoying living in the area. I think that confused the police a little as they were not sure where he was living exactly when Maddie vanished.
“Basically he had his VW Westfalia and was living free, going to raves and selling drugs to the local party crowd.”
Mr Taschl moved to the Spanish hippy enclave of Orgiva in early April 2007, weeks before Madeleine vanished. He said Brueckner turned up out of the blue in “late May or early June” in a Tiffin Allegro motorhome.
The inland barragems – reservoirs that supply water to the Algarve – are also on the hippy trail.
They are rarely visited by tourists as they are far away from the bustling holiday hotspots and relatively difficult to reach.
Hippys are attracted by their turquoise waters and surroundings where they can camp and take drugs in peace.
One of them, Barragem do Arade, was the location of this week’s search by German and Portuguese police.
Joao Alemeida, whose father owns a smallholding near the reservoir, said travellers often hold parties there.
“They hook up sound systems to the batteries of their vans and rave all night,” said Joao. “It’s the perfect spot. There aren’t many neighbours who will complain about the noise. They can get up to all sorts.
“To be fair, they don’t leave much rubbish behind and keep themselves to themselves.”
The peace at Barragem do Arade was shattered on Tuesday when police descended on the area.
Officers spent three days searching the site.
It was claimed yesterday they found a “relevant clue”.
Portuguese media said the mystery clue this week will be analysed by scientists in Germany.
Other finds also being tested include a bra strap, pieces of clothing and plastic items, according to daily newspaper Correio da Manha.
German prosecutors are trying to find evidence linking Brueckner to Madeleine’s disappearance.
He was a regular visitor to the reservoir, which is 50 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz, describing it to friends as his “little paradise”.
Madeleine was just days from her fourth birthday when she vanished from her parents’ holiday apartment in the resort in May 2007.
An informer is understood to have directed police to the reservoir and specific sites around it. They used drones, ground penetrating radar and sniffer dogs during the operation.
The search was concentrated on two sites, one of them a shaded picnic area popular with off-grid campers.
Eight 2ft-deep holes were dug into the earth by investigators to take soil samples. A second more isolated site, in undergrowth on the same peninsula, was also searched.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said it could take weeks for results of the tests to be known.
Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leics, are being kept updated by Scotland Yard.
Brueckner was named as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in June 2020. The pervert, who is serving a jail term in his home country for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz, denies any involvement.
He was awaiting trial for a string of rapes and child sexual assaults allegedly committed in Portugal.
The charges were dropped last month after a court ruling over who had jurisdiction in the case, but prosecutors are confident it will be overturned on appeal.
