Gib tug-of-war: Stalemate after phone call from Cameron to Rajoy; Spanish fishermen caught with contraband cigarettes
Wednesday, August 7, 2013 @ 4:38 PM
TENSIONS are mounting between the UK and Spain over Gibraltar as three Spanish fishermen have been caught smuggling contraband cigarettes and British prime minister David Cameron has telephoned Mariano Rajoy to discuss the situation.
The Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) found several cartons of fake cigarettes on board the San Francisco, a fishing boat from La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) in the Catalán Bay area of the Rock at about 04.00hrs this morning (Wednesday).
Three men, all from La Línea and aged 46, 49 and 51 were taken into custody along with three Gibraltarians – two aged 38 and one aged 42 – who were waiting on the beach at Catalán Bay for the illicit packages.
In the meantime Spanish president Mariano Rajoy has told Conservative leader David Cameron that Gibraltar's 'unilateral actions' are 'unacceptable'.
During the 10-minute conversation between the two heads of State, in which Rajoy recalled that the UK and Spain were 'friends, allies and fellow EU members', Cameron was told that the action of dropping concrete blocks into the sea around the rock near the port town of Algeciras (Cádiz) to form an artificial reef was not acceptable to the Spanish authorities.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com