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The
OLIVE PRESS
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GIBRALTAR
Vol. 8 Issue 221
www.theolivepress.es
The Rock’s ONLY free local paper April 17th - April 30th 2024
HALF Picasso, half Miro, it thrusts out of an olive grove near Ronda like a bull at Pamplona. With a giant copper horn, a beady eye and a pair of lips that double as a viewing platform, it is likely to become an internet sensation. The crazy five-storey building is part of a
new organic olive mill and museum created by French design guru Philippe Starck. Built over 26 hectares, LA Organic Experience is part of a €22 million investment which has seen around 10,000 trees planted. It expects to have 150,000 visitors a year and aims to promote the world’s best olive oil.
Rock politics is hit with scandal, posturing and potential, as details emerge at McGrail inquiry and Brexit deal edges closer
POWER AND INFLUENCE
GIBRALTAR’s Chief Minister has announced he will step down after his current term. Fabian Picardo told a popular podcast things had gotten ‘a little stickier’ and ‘I’ve had my fill of this job’. His words in The Rest is Politics come as an inquiry gathers steam over the early retirement of Gib’s former police boss, with Picardo’s involvement in its sights. The McGrail Inquiry has been taking the Rock by storm since it got underway last week. The hearings have been investigating the circumstances surrounding former Police Commissioner Ian McGrail’s early retirement in June 2020. Over the course of two weeks, the submissions have tried to get to the bottom of what occurred between Picardo, McGrail, Attorney General Michael Llamas, and its Direction of Public Prosecutions, Christian Rocca, in May that year. But surprisingly, it is ‘the most powerful’ lawyer in Gibraltar, James Levy,
The McGrail inquiry grips Gibraltar and shines a light on the shadowy figures who make the Rock tick as Chief Minister announces he’s ‘had his fill of this job’
were implicated in the alleged offence. These included a senior civil servant, the CEO of Gibraltar’s Borders and Coast Guard, and Levy himself. and his unsettling nickname ‘the grey But the inquiry also heard how the man’, that has come into focus. Chief Minister may have also had It was a search warrant on the Has- links to the scheme. sans’ boss that McGrail’s officers at- “I would not classify [Picardo] as a tempted to execute one fateful Tues- suspect,” McGrail told the hearing. day that set the chain of events in “But he had questions to answer.” motion that would lead to his forced The ex-cop added there had been a retirement. conspiracy ‘to stop Operation Delhi’ The Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) had and its investigations into a company been investigating an alleged criminal called 36 North Ltd. conspiracy to hack and defraud the Picardo reportedly had ‘full knowlNSCIS (National Security Centralised edge’ and even gave his ‘considerIntelligence System), that monitored able support’ to setting the company the border. up, which was created specifically Known as Operation Delhi, it found to receive the €840,000 contract to a series of high-ranking individuals manage the NSCIS. Levy, 69, (pictured below) had injected £476,000 into the company for a 33% stake, while the Chief Minister owned 3% by virtue of being a partner in Hassans. The influence of Levy - who police referred to A BREXIT deal is within ‘kissing disas ‘the grey man’ tance’ according to Chief Minister Fa- was all too apbian Picardo. parent in the It comes following a high-level meetMEETING: Picardo, Cameron, minutes and ing with the UK and Spain’s foreign Sefcovic and Albares hours after ministers, David Cameron and Jose their officers Manuel Albares, in Brussels. President of the European Commisattempted to An agreement has been reached on sion Maros Sefcovic. execute the the ‘general political lines’ with ‘sig- Lord Cameron made no comment afwarrant on nificant progress’ made over the airter the meeting, but Picardo and Alhim. port, goods and mobility. bares agreed the sides were close to a Levy cor“Negotiations will continue over the deal. d i a l l y coming weeks to conclude the EU-UK Picardo said that on a scale of one to thanked the Agreement,” a Gibraltar government 100 they were at ‘90 or 95’, leaving spokesman said. him ‘very optimistic’. No final date has been set on a de- He added: “We are very, very, very finitive deal between Gibraltar close. In English we say within spitand the EU, but it is thought ting distance but actually it is nice to that the hardest hurdles say we are within kissing distance.” have been overcome. Some of the issues still to overcome Picardo sat at the table involve control of the airport, which with Albares, Cam- the UK is unwilling to cede since it is eron and the Vice home to an RAF airbase.
By Walter Finch at the McGrail Inquiry
KISSING DISTANCE
officers for their ‘discretion’ during an interaction in which he voluntarily handed over his phone and tablet. But the moment they left, he immediately started making furious calls. The inquiry heard how a ‘very aggrieved’ Levy called the Attorney General within minutes the detectives had left his offices. Whatsapp records show Levy told him he felt ‘hung out to dry’. The Attorney General responded: “Don’t worry.” McGrail described the exchange as ‘unreal’ this week, insisting: “It’s absolutely unheard of, I’ve never come across it in all my career - totally and utterly inappropriate.” But he added that it ‘made sense’ as Llamas was ‘batting Mr Levy’s corner.” In a subsequent meeting between McGrail, Llamas and Paul Richardson, the officer leading Operation Delhi, Llamas said they were heading for a ‘major collision’ over the investigation. “It’s clear that this is going to get very nasty, very quickly,” he said in a secret recording made by McGrail. The government’s lawyers, representing Picardo, Llamas and Rocca, have alleged that McGrail lied over whether he sought legal advice from Rocca prior to
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sending his officers to search Levy. They allege that this - plus a number of other poorly-handled incidents in McGrail’s tenure as Commissioner caused them to lose confidence in him. The inquiry will hear testimony from Llamas, Rocca, Levy, and even Picardo himself, before it concludes in June. Picardo’s announcement that he would not stand for Chief Minister again, came after he insisted on getting a ‘rebuttal’ on The Rest is Politics podcast. In it, he told former Tory MP Rory Stewart and ex-Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell that McGrail’s lawyers claimed it was an inquiry ‘into corruption in Gibraltar’. He insisted: “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Opinion page 6 See Rumbles on the Rock, p6
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