Spanish police may want to check Gibraltar companies
The Spanish Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio del Interior) says that it will possibly be necessary to request the collaboration of Gibraltar authorities about bank accounts and companies which may have been involved in a money laundering operation carried out Jointly by Spanish and UK police.
This is disclosed today in the full text of a parliamentary answer which hitherto had not been published in full.
The question was put by Isaura Navarro of the Left-wing Izquierda Unida party. Part publication last month of the answer given by the interior ministry led to a major row, after it was alleged that cooperation from Gibraltar had been virtually nil in respect of investigations carried out by the Guardia Civilon matters concerning money laundering and tobacco fraud.
The official Gibraltar line is that the Spanish authorities do not recognise Gibraltar as a separate competent authority and channel their requests via the UK. This leads to nothing happening.
Opportunity
Now, a new opportunity is expected to arise regarding ‘Operation Sugar’, the first phase of which was a joint Spanish/UK police operation which led to 13 Britons being arrested, with police seizing in the Costa del Sol a range of property etc valued at millions of euros. Valuables, arms etc were seized in Marbella. Mijas, Fuengirola and Malaga.
The gang was led by a British national of Pakistani origin, and included what Spanish police describe as ‘dangerous’ persons.
Spanish police allege that the group was implicated in drug trafficking to the UK and in money laundering in respect of such operations.
During the police operations, the Spanish police seized documents said to be concerned with companies, property operations and money laundering.
The Spanish interior ministry said that, in this matter, it is possible that they will be requesting the collaboration of the Gibraltar authorities, once the second phase of the operation gets under way.
It should be clear that at present Gibraltar is not implicated. The collaboration that may be requested at a future date will, in fact, be to ascertain what involvement, if any, there has been through Gibraltar-registered companies.
From Panorama, Gibraltar’s Online Daily Newspaper
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09 November 2005 - Madrid insist ‘Gibraltar not co-operating’
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