Winning move for customs officials. Tens of thousands of contraband cigarettes, or 13 tons of tobacco, were recently confiscated by French customs during two almost simultaneous seizures, one in Aisne and the other in the port of Calais, Bercy reports. The value of these two embargoes is estimated at just over 6.8 million euros. Last year, French customs seized nearly 650 tons of contraband tobacco, “an increase of almost 60% in one year,” according to Bercy.
On Saturday, October 21, around four in the morning, the internal surveillance brigade of Laon (Aisne) intercepted a truck registered in Romania on the A4 motorway. According to documents presented by the driver to customs officials, the truck is transporting a load of 28 pallets of wrapping paper between Poland and France. But when inspecting the goods, customs officials discovered cartons of Marlboro brand cigarettes. No less than 560,000 packs of cigarettes were counted, that is, 11.2 tons of tobacco.
The driver, detained at customs, was handed over to the Judicial Financial Investigation Service (SEJF) of Lille “for acts of possession in an organized gang of tobacco products without regular receipts and for forgery,” says Bercy, and “incurred a penalty of prison”. prayer.”
Italian vino
An hour after the seizure on the A4 motorway, customs officers from the external surveillance brigade of the port of Calais in turn checked a truck registered in the United Kingdom. According to documents presented by the driver, the truck was transporting pallets of Italian wine destined for the United Kingdom. But the customs officers observed a multitude of boxes without a trademark on top of the pallets of wine and discovered, upon opening them, that they contained packets of cigarettes; Customs officials counted almost two tons of cigarettes.
According to Bercy, the driver was detained at customs and notified to the Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor’s office.
Source: BFM TV
