MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar apologizes to Madrid for illegal police search in Spain

Chief Minister Peter Caruana: “an incorrect intervention”

The Gibraltar Government made public an apology to Spain at the weekend after a Madrid newspaper revealed that two Gibraltar policemen illegally searched a house in Alcaidesa and seized evidence without first informing the Spanish authorities.

The two officers had no jurisdiction to work in Spain and did not have a court order for the search, which was carried out in connection with an investigation into a robbery in the Cellini jewellery shop. The officers believed they were operating legitimately because they attended the rented house together with the landlord, also a Gibraltarian.

But when the Spanish right-wing daily newspaper ABC splashed the news on the front page of its Saturday edition, the reaction from Opposition politicians in Spain was immediate and furious.

Jose Ignacio Landaluce, the Popular Party MP for Cadiz, said the incident would have “a very grave impact” on cross-border relations and called for the Spanish government to answer questions on the matter in the parliament.

Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs contacted Britain’s ambassador in Madrid and Chief Minister Peter Caruana to express its “deep unease” at the events and to demand explanations.

In a statement, the Gibraltar Government said it had apologised for what it described as “an incorrect intervention” by the two officers from the Royal Gibraltar Police.

“This is a regrettable incident in which Gibraltar police have acted improperly and I have not hesitated in apologising to the Spanish Government just as they did when the Civil Guard alighted in a residential area of Gibraltar last year,” Mr Caruana said.

“It is good and necessary that the enforcement agencies should co-operate between both sides of the border - a position to which the Gibraltar Government is committed - and it is also necessary they each comply with and respect the established procedures avoiding incidents and errors such as this one.”