TWO SPANIARDS EXECUTED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 12 January 1944, Page 2

TWO SPANIARDS EXECUTED

SABOTAGE AT GIBRALTAR (Rec. 10.40 a.m.) London, Jan. 11. Two Spaniards, Cordon Cuenca and Munoz were executed at Gibraltar to day after trial for offences against the Gibraltar defence regulations. Cordon Cuenca, who pleaded not guilty of treachery, was an agent working for an Axis group in the south of Spain, who were recruiting Spaniards to commit sabotage in Gibraltar on behalf of the German secret service. Bombs were smuggled across the frontier to Gibraltar by agents working for the group. Bombs passed to Cordon Cuenca who hid them in a ship where he was employed, while waiting for instructions to hand the bombs over to a saboteur. Cordon Cuenca, when arrested in June 1943, was found to have in his possession a bomb which he knew was intended for sabotage in an armaments tunnel of the Royal Dockyard. Gibraltar. Munoz, who pleaded guilly of treachery, was employed in the Royal Dockyard. He entered Gibraltar daily. He was recruited by a Spaniard, Lalinea. who was working for the German secret service. Munoz succeeded in smuggling. a bomb into Gibraltar, and placing it on a petroleum tank in the fuel enclosure tf a coaling island. It caused a serious fire, destroying property and fuel. Munoz also had a second bomb hidden in Gibraltar, with which he intended to commit further sabotage if he escaped detection after th first i-ct.