Nov 29 - GSD Urges Government to Clamp Down on Smuggling
The GSD is calling on the Chief Minister to take practical measures to curtail the tobacco smuggling activity from our beaches, which has been steadily increasing in recent months.
'We have been raising this issue since 2012 and it appears to be getting worse not better' said an Opposition spokesman.
The spokesman continued by saying that 'given the images we have seen on television and, for example, the ease with which the smugglers are able to negotiate the fence at Eastern Beach, the Government should consider simply rebuilding or reinforcing and extending the frontier fence in a manner which effectively neutralises any possibility, physically, of smuggling tobacco from the beach at that point. At the moment people are clambering through holes in the existing fence and running backwards and forwards from Gibraltar to Spain. The scenes we saw on GBC two weeks ago demeans Gibraltar. The Opposition acknowledges that law enforcement agencies do what they can but the Government can take practical measures to tackle the issue at what is a particularly obvious smuggling hotspot.'
The Opposition further understands that the MOD is repairing/replacing the fence at Western Beach and they urge the Government, if it hasn't already done so, to work with the MOD to create an extended fence to deal with this issue at Western Beach.
