When people are desperate, they will do anything for money.

And that means doing things which can make matters a whole lot worse… like ending up in prison or even worse… dead!

Gibraltar is a small British territory in the Mediterranean connected to Spain.

Gibraltar itself has a very low unemployment rate. It’s nearly zero. Thousands of people cross the border from Spain to work in Gibraltar each day.

The same cannot be said for La Linea de la Concepcion, the Spanish town which borders Gibraltar. The unemployment rate there is quite high.

Depending on when the documentary series Cops on the Rock was filmed, (shown on the television channel oddly called Dave) the show stated that the unemployment rate of La Linea de la Concepcion was around 30%.

In a later episode a customs office said that the unemployment rate in Linea de la Concepcion had been as high as 60%!

The reason they were talking about the unemployment rates of both places was because the Gibraltan customs team had fished a young Spanish male out of the waters after chasing a smuggling boat.

Because of its close proximity to Morocco and the fact that Gibraltar is a port, the Gibraltan police and customs services were engaged in a constant battle with smugglers trying to smuggle cheap tobacco and drugs into both Spain and Gibraltar.

The young Spaniard who was fished out of the water around 3AM could have been killed. He was flipped off a boat as it swerved hard to avoid the customs boat catching up with it.

He could very easily have been hit by the blades of the motor.

Taking him back to shore to process him meant that the customs boat was now out of action leaving the seas open which the smugglers exploited.

The customs team could hear more smugglers boats making their way to Spain.

The apprehended smuggler was asked why he was risking his life to smuggle in cheap tobacco in the early hours of the morning; he replied it was to pay for food for his family.

When asked how much the smugglers were paying him to deliver the tobacco, he said it was €2 per box. That’s around £1.67 at time of writing.

Smuggling boats usually have between ten and sixteen boxes of tobacco products. They appeared to be quite large and wrapped in black plastic wrap.

For each trip that he was doing in the dark across a very busy international shipping route full of large tankers and ships, he was earning between £17 and £27.

To make a decent amount of money the smuggling teams, usually consisting of three men per boat, would need to do several trips each night.

Every time they went out in a boat, they are risking death and as in the case for this unfortunate young Spaniard, a potential spell in a prison in a different country.

It’s pure madness!

But that is what happens when people are desperate for money.

Seeing your children go without food and clothing isn’t nice, but it’s better to be around to see them than being locked up or worse… dead.

Isn’t it?

I’m sure the children of tobacco smugglers would prefer to miss a meal or two if it meant having their fathers around.

The frustrating thing is that there are many ways to make money which do not require you to risk jail or death.

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