GIBRALTAR (Agencies/Photo: GibChronicle) Authorities on both sides of the border have been clamping down on tobacco smuggling. In Gibraltar, the number of people arrested for tobacco-related offences has risen sharply year-on-year as the RGP police and HM Customs target organised groups engaged in the clandestine trade, while the Guardia Civil have tightened border checks and are conducting random searches in the Campo de Gibraltar. However, the evidence is that the sale of cigarrettes is as brisk as ever. It is an organised business, says the Gibraltar Chronicle, with one person buying the cigarrettes and distributing to others on the other side. Photos (left) taken earlier this month show groups of people gathering to hand out cigarettes and exchange cash on the Gibraltar side of the border.>Spanish law allows one carton per person per day, but if ID details are not logged, then there is nothing to stop people making multiple trips.
Until recently, lax controls led to groups using a conveyor system of individual porters to bring large quantities of cigarettes across the border during the course of a day. In the past, ringleaders stopped by police were found carrying notebooks with lists of individuals and how much they are owed.
The checks at the border are stricter now, but as is clear from the groups still active in the area of the air terminal, there is room for the matuteras (or matuteros, the male and female smugglers who hide packs of cigarrettes on their person to take them across, which can be witnessed on any day of the week) to manoeuvre.
It is this sort of offence - concealment of tobacco is a crime, as is carrying a commercial quantity without a licence - that police and Customs are focusing on in a bid to disrupt the activity. Most of those arrested for concealing tobacco are released with a caution, the main aim being to disrupt the activity and create a deterrent. In a small number of cases, repeat offenders are charged. Anyone caught with a commercial quantity of cigarettes without a licence faces a fine.
Until recently, lax controls led to groups using a conveyor system of individual porters to bring large quantities of cigarettes across the border during the course of a day. In the past, ringleaders stopped by police were found carrying notebooks with lists of individuals and how much they are owed.
The checks at the border are stricter now, but as is clear from the groups still active in the area of the air terminal, there is room for the matuteras (or matuteros, the male and female smugglers who hide packs of cigarrettes on their person to take them across, which can be witnessed on any day of the week) to manoeuvre.
It is this sort of offence - concealment of tobacco is a crime, as is carrying a commercial quantity without a licence - that police and Customs are focusing on in a bid to disrupt the activity. Most of those arrested for concealing tobacco are released with a caution, the main aim being to disrupt the activity and create a deterrent. In a small number of cases, repeat offenders are charged. Anyone caught with a commercial quantity of cigarettes without a licence faces a fine.
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