Editor's Blog July 18th 2012
You can run, but can you hide?
So this morning, I came in to the office, just like any other morning, thinking to myself, what can I write about today that will cheer people up and maybe even get them thinking today? I came up blank… I asked around the office… No inspiration either. I moved on to friends on Facebook, still nothing and eventually it came to…
Was it divine intervention? NO! It was a press release that has inspired me this morning.
As you have all probably read this morning, someone was arrested for half a ton of Cannabis Resin, was found guilty, sentenced to eight years, did a runner, is being brought back to Gibraltar today as part of a European Arrest Warrant Extradition.
Sounds like exciting stuff. The Press Release reads how he has been on the run since he was sentenced back in 2010, so now I’m picturing the Fugitive, gun fights, car chases, helicopters over head and maybe even a sewer pipe scene just like Harrison Ford.
Or maybe it’s like Prison Break, but without the going to prison bit obviously. Intricate detailed plans, fake passports, disguises, hidden maps, train station lockers full of cash and all ending in Panama, where if you are lucky, no one asks any questions and you get to live out your days without being extradited.
If not that, then surely, Bourne Identity style, multiple identities, different names, passports, cars, trains, boats, planes and more theories than you can shake a stick at. You end up living on the beach in India, no one knows you and at the end of the day, if you’re lucky, no one comes after you
Is it just my wild imagination that thinks it should be somewhat like that?
Reading on through the press release, it turns out, the RGP and Customs provided Spanish officials with information that the person in question was living in Duquesa. Really? Duquesa?
From what I can gather, in two years, he had managed to get 31.9 km away form Gibraltar, according to Google Maps… 37 minutes by car, 5 hours by public transport (apparently) or 6 hours and 28 minutes if you walked.
Obviously my imagination ran a little wild there, but I stick to my thought process. In the 1970’s and 80’s criminals in the UK were doing a runner before going down and coming to the Costa del Sol. It was perfect, no extradition and a great lifestyle, especially if you had just knocked over a bank or a post office. Imagine Ray Winston in Sexy Beast… “It’s Hot!”, if you haven’t seen it, you should.
In conclusion, to end up being a hop, skip and a jump away from Gibraltar, where Gibraltarians go for a night out, a weekend away and so forth, surely it’s not the best hideaway. Butch Cassidy, Sundance and the Hole in the Wall gang would not be impressed…
by Eddie.
