On Sunday, the British Foreign Office accused Spain of repeatedly violating UK sovereignty by sending boats into British waters in Gibraltar.
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Officers from the Servicio de Vigilancia Aduanera made several incursions on Saturday and Sunday without notifying Gibraltan authorities and had to be escorted away by the Royal Navy.
The smugglers jettisoned bales of drugs before hitting a submerged reef and abandoning their beached vessel with Spain’s customs service in hot pursuit. In a separate incident, Spanish police reportedly flew a helicopter over a beach, an act that the Gibraltar government lambasted as “extremely risky”.
“The waters are Spanish”, said an official from Spain’s Foreign Ministry, who declined to be named in line with the ministry’s policy.
British Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire said the repeated incursions “are a clear violation of UK sovereignty by another EU country”.
Express.co.uk’s video shows Spanish police boats rushing into the UK waters, with Gibraltar ‘s famous coastline and port in sight. They whole of Gibraltar will be outraged at their failure to cooperate in a way that would have better assisted to capture the criminals in question.
A densely populated area on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar remains a major point of contention in Britain’s diplomatic relations with Spain. Gibraltar’s authorities stated Spain ought to have sought their authorities’s help in looking for suspects as soon as they crossed into Gibraltar’s territory, and stated failure to take action resulted within the escape of a suspected drug smuggler. In one incident, they boarded a Spanish pleasure craft off Eastern Beach and questioned its crew. Picardo said he was “astonished and appalled” by the Spanish actions.
Swire said Britain believed the offending Spanish vessels had been pursuing other boats which may have been committing unspecified crimes. Mr Picardo said: “I am sure I am speaking for the whole of Gibraltar when I say that we consider this has been a serious and unnecessary failure on the part of the Spanish SVA which has had outrageous consequences in respect of the violation of our sovereignty”.
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A Spanish man protests against British sovereignty over Gibraltar in 2013 The peaceful re-claiming of Gibraltar, lost by Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704, has been the aim of the Spanish government for a long time. The Gibraltar Defence Police and Royal Navy are also to be thanked for their prompt assistance of the RGP and Customs.
