Walter Finch
SPAIN’S ‘rogue officer’ police chief has finally been dismissed from his post thanks to his latest border shenanigans, according to reports in Spain.
Chief Inspector David Barrero received his marching orders by email after he ordered border police to start stamping the passports of Gibraltarians at 10.30am this morning, el Confidencial report.
This particular start time was deliberately designed to protect Spaniards crossing into Gibraltar for work, while hurting Gibraltarians heading to Spain for the weekend.
The strict regime lasted around two hours, during which long queues grew on both sides of the border.
The Gibraltar government said they were ‘aware that Spanish authorities began to stamp passports of Gibraltarians on entry to Spain this morning [but it] understands that these measures were stopped well within an hour of being implemented, and therefore Gibraltar’s authorities did not introduce reciprocal measures on this occasion.’
According to El Confidencial: “The La Línea police commissioner, María Jose Martínez, immediately called the chief inspector to order him to leave the border and report to her offices.
“Once there, she also asked him to withdraw the order. The chief inspector refused to cancel it unless he received a written order from his superiors, which they did after they sent.
“In it they demanded that he stop requiring passports from Gibraltarians who present themselves at the border to enter Spain – or, in other words, to violate the Schengen Code.
“Shortly afterwards he was informed by email of his dismissal as chief inspector without giving any reason or re-assigning him.”
READ MORE: How Franco’s decision to close the Gibraltar border backfired: ‘Now we’re more British than ever’
His sacking comes not long after the Olive Press reported that Barrero was under investigation by the Policia Nacional for checking passports while being drunk and out of uniform.
However, his superiors may not have hard the last of Barrero.
The ‘rogue officer’ is expected to use his dismissal to step up his legal campaign against the current ‘relaxed’ regime at the Gibraltar border, which permits Gibraltarians with the correct IDs to enter Spain without stamping their passport.
The police chief has argued that this violates the Schengen Code, which requires passports to be stamped and travellers to jump through onerous hoops.
Now he will add charges of coercion and abuse of power to those of misconduct that he has already levelled at his own superiors.
Meanwhile, sources within Gibraltar have suggested that Barrero’s crusade is part of a right-wing plot devised by the political opponents of Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing government to derail the post-Brexit treaty negotiations.
