Busy Christmas weekend for Gibraltar Customs

On Monday December 28, officers of the Customs Marine Unit were involved in a high speed chase, starting on the East side, which forced suspected smugglers out of British Gibraltar Territorial Waters as they attempted to round Europa Point. The chase then continued into Spanish waters where the Marine Unit pulled back to allow Guardia Civil officers to take over. 

The Guardia Civil later thanked HM Customs for all the assistance they had provided.

In a separate incident on the same day, customs officers recovered three bales of cannabis and a number of jerry cans containing petrol from the sea on the East side. The bales weighed approximately 90 kilograms with an estimated street value of £495,000.

These incidents come at a time which is always busy for HM Customs. There were the usual high numbers of pedestrians crossing the land frontier and, at this time of year, both Customs and RGP officers are always on the lookout for people trying to import illegal fireworks, not satisfied with the usual fine display provided by government at midnight on New Year’s Eve.