Pubdate: 3 Mar 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. Author: Claudia Parsons FOCUS-GIBRALTAR IS NEST OF ORGANISED CRIME-SPAIN MADRID, March 3 (Reuters) - Spain has handed over to Britain a report about Gibraltar that describes the disputed colony as a nest of organised crime, government sources said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar presented his British counterpart Tony Blair with the report, detailing Spanish police operations against drug smugglers and other criminal activities linked to Gibraltar, when the two met in Germany last week. The report says a lack of financial transparency on the rock gives Gibraltar "a genuine infrastructure for the financial and bureaucratic logistics of significant illegal traffic and money laundering", one source said. It said drug trafficking in Gibraltar, which Spain ceded to Britain in 1713, was "a stain that is impossible to eradicate". Foreign Minister Abel Matutes reaffirmed on Tuesday that Spain would maintain strict controls at its frontier with Gibraltar until the British colony complies with EU regulations on financial transparency and public accounting. Spain has tightened border controls in recent months as part of a dispute over the colony which Spain says is a "parasite economy" damaging to its interests. Cars crossing the border have regularly been delayed for several hours. The Gibraltar government has accused Spain of spreading lies and propaganda to further its longstanding claims to sovereignty. Some 5,000 Spaniards who cross the border every day to work in Gibraltar held a demonstration on Wednesday to protest at the tighter controls which they say are damaging their livelihood. The report handed to Britain details a series of police operations against organised crime gangs with links to Gibraltar, the sources said, confirming an article published on Wednesday in the daily El Mundo. It said that in one investigation dubbed "Operation Victoria" last October, police seized 11.5 tonnes of hashish resin, 1,234 kg (2,720 lb) of cocaine and 12,050 designer drug pills, as well as numerous firearms. It concluded that the gang was involved not only in drug trafficking but also in organised crime, "without ruling out kidnapping and murder". - --- MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski