Sep 30 - Customs Tobacco Arrests
Officers of HM Customs challenged a group of men at the northern end of Eastern Beach on Thursday. Several large holdalls were seen to be taken from two Spanish registered cars on Eastern Beach Road and then two men ran towards the frontier fence at the northern end of the beach carrying the holdalls.
HM Customs intercepted the two men on the beach area and arrested a 24 year old Spanish national resident in La Linea. The second man entered the sea and swam across to Spain where he was met by several other men on the Spanish beach.
HM Customs retrieved several large holdalls containing a commercial quantity of cigarettes. During the course of the recovery of these bags, a group of men began to enter Gibraltar unlawfully via the frontier fence; several units from both HM Customs and the Royal Gibraltar Police attended the scene and the group fled back to Spain from where they began to throw stones and missiles at the officers and vehicles.
Fortunately, no injury to persons or property damage was sustained in this incident.
HM Customs seized the vehicles and 14,840 cigarettes (over 74 cartons) during the incident and the investigation is ongoing.
In a separate operation, Officers of HM Customs challenged two La Linea residents at the Land Frontier last night. The two Spanish nationals, aged 22 and 24, were seen in a Spanish registered car in the exit channel to Spain. The two women were arrested after their vehicle was searched by Customs and found to contain a commercial quantity of cigarettes concealed in an adaptation to the car.
The women have been bailed to surrender on Oct 25th. The car and 9,560 cigarettes (47 cartons) have been seized by HM Customs.
