UK police asked to help with Gibraltar’s inquiry into alleged government corruption
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UK police have been called in to lead an investigation into a data breach in a public inquiry concerning alleged corruption at the top of Gibraltar’s government.
The development is the latest twist in the inquiry, which is to hear explosive allegations by the British overseas territory’s former police chief, Ian McGrail.
He claims that he was pressed into taking early retirement after seeking to execute a search warrant against someone who had a close relationship with Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo.
Royal Gibraltar police (RGP) have already arrested two people in connection with the alleged data breach but, with the force’s ex-commissioner at the heart of the inquiry, they asked their UK counterparts for support in the interests of “transparency”.
A RGP spokesperson said: “The criminal investigation into the alleged data breach is continuing. As a result of our request to the UK’s National Police Coordination Centre for Mutual Aid, a senior investigating officer from the Police Service of Northern Ireland has been briefed and provided with all the necessary documents to allow him to lead the investigation.”
The suspected breach relating to the inquiry’s documents is considered a matter of “the utmost seriousness and urgency” and has led to the postponement of the inquiry’s main hearing, which was scheduled to take place in March.
Even before the breach, hacking was already an issue the inquiry had to contend with. The search warrant under scrutiny related to alleged hacking and sabotage of the national security centralised intelligence system (NSCIS) and into a conspiracy to defraud Bland Ltd, the private company that was operating the system, in order to benefit another company, 36 North Limited.
