France’s largest clandestine cigarette factory dismantled

The authorities French dismantled this week in Rouen (west) the largest clandestine cigarette factory discovered so far in the country.

In the operation carried out on Thursday by the national gendarmerie (militarized police) were seized more of 100 tons of products: 55 tons of cigarettes50 tons of labels, filters, papers, wrappers, as well as 18 tons of tobacco residues and waste from cigarettes.

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The resale price of the seized clandestine tobacco was valued at 13.7 million euros (14.8 million dollars), according to the gendarmerie.

In December 2021, French customs in Poincy, in the Paris region, had discovered a first factory clandestine of cigarettes. Then they found two other places: one to prepare the packages in La Longueville (north) and one for storage in Poincy itself.

On January 12, alerted at the end of 2022 by the European Police Office (Europol) of the presence of international smuggling of cigarettes in the industrial area of ​​Saint-Aubin-les-Elbeuf, near Rouen, the French gendarmes discovered a large factory.

The place included an accommodation space with a common dormitory with about fifteen beds and a small kitchen.

Nine people, between the ages of 21 and 55, all foreigners, were arrested. Most of them were of Moldovan nationality.

The detainees were presented this Sunday before the courts in Paris, which ordered the prosecution of all. Four remained in prison and the other five were placed under judicial control.

The enormous profits generated by the market of cigarettes clandestine activity attracts the attention of criminal organizations often specialized in narcotics.

Eastern European criminal organizations, from the Baltics to the Balkans, are in control of tobacco smuggling.

Established first in the Ukraine and then in Poland, the factories began to be moved to Western Europe, for example to Belgium.

Source: Elcomercio

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