Jan 14 - Customs Make Smuggling Arrests
This weekend saw officers of HM Customs make several drug and tobacco smuggling related arrests. The first saw 30-year-old local, John Clancy arrested for the possession of 20 grams of herbal cannabis that was found in his bag. Clancy pleaded guilty in court this morning. A pre-sentencing report has been authorised.
Saturday afternoon saw a 20 year old resident of La Linea challenged Customs officers by Western Beach and was subsequently arrested after being found in possession of 9,800 cigarettes. Cigarettes were seized by Customs and the man has been bailed to surrender on February 18th.
In an unrelated incident, Customs Officers conducting an area search along British Lines Road discovered a Spanish registered vehicle containing 20,000 cigarettes. The cigarettes have been seized by Customs and an investigation is ongoing.
This morning, as a result of a disruption exercise at Western Beach, Customs officials arrested two female Spanish nationals under the provisions of the Imports & Exports Act. The women, aged 40 and 22 are both from La Linea and have been bailed to surrender on January 30th. Customs seized 13,840 cigarettes in this incident.
