Last night at around 10pm, Customs officers gave chase to a suspect who had been sighted carrying three large bags north from Eastern Beach towards the frontier fence. Customs chased the man on foot and forced him to drop the bags. The man evaded capture by returning, empty-handed, to the public beach where he was collected by a second man driving a Spanish registered car.

The bags were retrieved and found to contain 20,000 cigarettes that were subsequently seized. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

In a separate incident La Linea resident, 32-year-old David Suarez Fernandez was sentenced to a fine of £600 yesterday in the Magistrates’ Court. Mr. Fernandez had pleaded guilty to possession of 8000 cigarettes found in his vehicle when he was stopped by Customs attempting to exit Gibraltar via the land frontier on November 4^th 2013.