Viagra-style drugs are enjoying a booming black market between Gibraltar and Spain following the removal of the land border, it has emerged.
The disappearance of the so-called Verja on July 15 has dramatically changed the face of smuggling in the Campo de Gibraltar, reports local newspaper Europa Sur.
Police sources said the boats once synonymous with trafficking cheap cigarettes from the Rock have now virtually disappeared.
But while tobacco appears to be losing ground, Viagra and similar generic medicines remain firmly established on the illicit market.
The drugs are particularly attractive to smugglers because they are small, relatively valuable and easy to conceal.
Crucially, Viagra can be bought without a prescription in Gibraltar, while a prescription is required in Spain.
The removal of the old physical border checks has made transporting small quantities across into neighbouring La Linea even easier.
It marks a major change for a region where tobacco smuggling has been deeply entrenched for decades.
Previously, boats were frequently used to move cigarettes from Gibraltar into Spain while avoiding checks at the land border.
Police sources say those vessels have now largely vanished from local waters, although some may have simply moved their operations towards the nearby Costa del Sol.
Meanwhile, tobacco is reportedly being transported across the land crossing in cars.
‘According to what they say, tobacco is leaving through the border in cars given that there are no controls,’ one police source said.
‘We have made some small seizures, but little else.’
However, authorities and the tobacco industry say there has so far been no evidence of the huge surge in cigarette smuggling that some feared when the physical border disappeared.
Officials caution that the new arrangements have only been operating for several weeks, making it too early to determine their long-term effect.
The situation with weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy is moving in the opposite direction.
Pharmaceutical industry sources say their presence on the black market has declined following the introduction of electronic prescriptions in Spain, which makes it harder to repeatedly obtain medication from different pharmacies.
The early picture therefore suggests the end of the Verja has not ended smuggling around Gibraltar, but that it is simply changing what is being smuggled and how.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
