On 2 March there was an incident in La Linea which went almost unreported: Dozens of people gathered to protest about the attitude of the Spanish authorities at the frontier with Gibraltar.
They urged that the authorities should not be so strict and that everyone should be allowed to cross from Gibraltar with a carton of cigarettes daily.
It so happens that from 1 March higher authority had instructed that stricter controls be put in place at the frontier, restricting one carton a month to be allowed through.
It so happens, adds the report in the daily El Pais, going to Gibraltar for tobacco has become during the last year a means of making a livelihood, in an area with nearly 40% unemployment.
A carton of tobacco costs in Gibraltar 25 euros when in Spain it costs 42 euros - 17 euros difference! On the other hand, to be a smuggler in the Campo area has never been regarded as a bad practice. There is a long tradition.
But nowhere in the world is such smuggling going on so visibly. Official Spanish data says that in 2009 over 11 million crossed the frontier; this went up to over 12 million the following year and to over 13 million last year. 'That additional 2 million of movements correspondend, in its majority, to persons who go to Gibraltar to buy tobacco,' the report adds.
And in the case of vehicles the increase is of half a million. The number of motorbikes crossing the frontier was 60 a minute, that represents smuggling on a big scale.
Towards the end of 2010 there was a change in circumstances in the type of smuggling, said a Spanish official. Down went the arrests of faked tobacco, which was not imported for use in Spain, and it was back to the traditional way - tobacco for Spanish consumption perhaps because the crisis and other factors has led to more people being prepared to get involved.
A spokesman for Phillip Morris said that 80% of faked cigarettes of Spanish makes hailed from China, but those involved have started to open illegal plants in the EU.
It is thought that the tobacco shops tend to exaggerate the problem to seek a lowering of Spanish duty on cigarettes.
The main problem for the Spanish authorities at present is not so much faked but illegal tobacco, the one that does not pay duty and crosses the frontier.
In a recent study, it is said that tobacco that evades duty in Spain has incrfeased from 4.2% to 9.5% in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the previous year.
A new law has been causing problems in the Gibraltar frontier. Twice the number of cartons were reported, while the number of vehicles, generally motorcycles, went up from 989 to over 2,000 last year.
The report speaks of organisations that have acquired premises or garages near the frontier to receive those who bring the tobacco and those who buy it. Spanish customs says that there are organisations with more than 100 'employees'. The situation spreads. In Cadiz sales at tobacconists has gone down 34%. In La Linea the number of tobacconists has decreased from 9 to 3 - and those might close on a temporary basis.
A spokesman for the unemployed in La Linea said smuggling of tobacco was a way of life in times of crisis. There are families coming to La Linea from other parts of Andalucia. To eliminate the practice is to make more people suffer.
Today, says the report, certain type of smuggling of tobacco creates employment.
Panorama Gibraltar
27-03-12
