Desperate Search: Police Divers To Search Portuguese Reservoir for the Remains of Missing Madeleine McCann

An international team investigator is gathering at a remote reservoir in Portugal to conduct a massive dive search for remains of Madeleine McCann, RadarOnline.com has learned.

The reservoir is located about 30 miles east of the beachfront resort town of Praia da Luz where the 3-year-old British girl vanished in 2007 while on vacation with her parents — sparking an international hunt for the missing toddler.

The reservoir is believed to be a favorite haunt for convicted pedophile killer Christian Brueckner, who is currently sitting behind bars in Germany where prosecutors believe he is the chief suspect in the McCann case.

Brueckner was recently charged in Portugal with several sex crimes spanning over a 17-year period ending in 2017. German officials sought and were granted permission to search the lake created by a man-made dam near the town of Silves.

Investigators from Scotland Yard plan to assist in the search along with Portuguese police are on-site sealing off the roads leading to the massive Barragem do Arade reservoir which can store about 3.6 billion cubic gallons of water.

The search is expected to last about two days and it is unknown what led the German police to search the reservoir.

“Portuguese police will offer logistical support, but the initiative is German, and they were the ones that requested the work that is going to take place this week,” an insider told the Daily Mail. “Scotland Yard officers are due to travel to Portugal but theirs will be a watching brief.”

On the day she vanished, Madeleine had been left with her 2-year-old twin siblings in the unlocked rental while Kate and Gerry McCann enjoyed a meal with friends at a nearby restaurant just 130 feet away. After checking on the kids every so often, Kate was shocked to discover that Madeleine was gone, noticing there was an open window.

But Julian Peribanez, the Barcelona-based private investigator who has spent nearly two decades searching for Madeleine, told RadarOnline.com he thinks Madeleine is still alive.

“It’s good that they are searching but I am pretty positive they are not going to find anything over there,” said Peribanez, who was the on-the-ground gumshoe hired in 2007 to pursue leads not being investigated by the police in Portugal.

“My investigation is taking me in another direction because I believe she was kidnapped by an organized criminal group,” he told RadarOnline.com. “It’s impossible for one person to commit such a crime and get away with it. It was obviously a well-planned job and I’m sure the people who kidnapped Maddie left the country that same day.”

“Their motive was money and that’s why I think Maddie is alive today.”

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The murky waters of the reservoir were searched twice in 2008 in a privately funded operation after an attorney was tipped off by an organized crime figure who claimed Madeleine was dumped at the site.

Brueckner, 46, has vehemently denied any role in the McCann case even though the creep worked as a handyman at the Ocean Club at the Pria da Luz resort in the spring of 2007 when Madeleine was snatched.

International interest in the McCann case earlier this year when Julia Wendell, 21, took to social media to claim she could be Madeleine – but DNA test proved her genealogy originated from her native Poland.