THE GIBRALTAR government has condemned an incident on Monday night where a Spanish customs patrol boat crew member boarded a UK-flagged vessel in British-controlled waters.
Gibraltarian authorities reported what happened to the United Kingdom government who will make a formal protest to their Spanish counterparts.
The incident involved a Spanish customs boat, the Aguila 2 which chased the UK-registered vessel, the Ultimate Predator.
One of the crew members of the Gibraltar vessel is said to have been illegally restrained by a Spanish customs official who boarded their craft at around 10.30pm which was within internationally recognised British waters around Gibraltar.
Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, said: “Incidents like this are an unacceptable reflection of the failure by Spanish law enforcement to recognise that the territorial limits of their jurisdiction does not extend to Gibraltar’s unquestionably British waters.”
HM Customs attended the scene and after discussions with their Spanish counterparts, officials from the Aquila 2 left the area.
The Ultimate Predator is a port tender boat which HM Customs had identified on radar as travelling without navigational lights and without its Automatic Identification System (AIS) flagging its location.
This caused some cause for concern and HM Customs left the craft satisfied, having confirmed that it had been carrying out a legitimate crew transfer to a merchant ship in British waters and that and that its navigational lights and AIS had merely malfunctioned.
Fabian Picardo said: “The unfortunate failure of the navigational lights and AIS of a vessel can, rightly, give rise to suspicion on the part of law enforcement agencies patrolling the area but HM Customs was dealing with the matter.”
“The engagement of a foreign law enforcement agency, however, without any communication or
coordination with Gibraltar law enforcement, is illegal and unacceptable,” he added.
There has been no comment from the Spanish government about the incident.
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