Tobacco smuggler is sentenced for assaulting an off-duty customs officer in Gibraltar as illicit trade with Spain continues to thrive

A SUSPECTED tobacco smuggler who kicked a customs officer in the chest and threatened him with a rock has been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison.

Gibraltarian Jayron Perez, 25, of Glacis Estate, pleaded guilty to assaulting the man and was sentenced in the Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard that just after 7pm on Friday 19 August 2022, Perez was down by the seafront in the area of Neil Piñero Road (formerly Emerson’s Place) with other associates.

The group were thought to be loading a vessel up with bags of suspected tobacco when a lone off-duty Customs Officer arrived at the scene and shouted for them to stop.

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Perez then kicked the officer in the chest, sending him to the floor – causing the officer various minor injuries.

He then picked up a large rock and threatened to bash the officer with it as he lay on the ground.

The official quickly fled the scene and requested back up from his colleagues.

Other Customs Officers arrived and attempted to block Perez leaving in a car, but he mounted a pavement, almost colliding with members of the public as he escaped.

The incident was reported to the Royal Gibraltar Police and following an investigation, Perez was identified on CCTV. He then handed himself in and was arrested.

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Perez also pleaded guilty to Carrying An Offensive Weapon (the rock), for which he received no separate penalty. As he has already spent 19 weeks on remand, he will not serve any further time.

Tobacco smuggling has long been a profitable business – and another source of tension between Spain and Gibraltar – due to the fact that the territory does not apply sales taxes.

Just last month, Gibraltar customs officer announced that they had made two arrests and confiscated approximately 72 cartons of cigarettes from a Spanish vessel that had been loaded up in Rosia Bay.

In 2023, Lisardo Capote, the head of Spanish customs in Algeciras, accused Gibraltar of enabling the illicit trade and even profiting from it.

“Tobacco is not a problem in the colony,” he told the Financial Times. “It is a source of funding. The problems it creates are on this side of the fence.”