Routine check, November 10, at the border of Saint-Ludovic in Menton.

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M. Bernouin / ANP / 20 Minutes

  • Soldiers from Operation Sentinel are expected next week in the Alpes-Maritimes.

  • In the meantime, the usual checks take place in Menton and at the La Turbie tollgate.

Five days after the announcement of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron to "double the security forces at the borders", there is "blue" on the axes of passage between Italy and the Alpes-Maritimes.

But difficult to say if there is more than usual.

This Mentonnaise, who comes every fortnight to restock tobacco cigarettes installed 100 m after the seaside border, has "noticed no change".

In Garavan, the other Franco-Italian axis in the town of Menton, three Niçois have just passed by car without being asked anything: “we could have had anything in the trunk!

»Laughs the driver yellow.

"Reinforcements from the sentinel operation being deployed"

The press service of the national police, joined by

20 Minutes

, simply indicates that "reinforcements from the sentinel operation are being deployed".

Soldiers who will integrate the control system led by the border police (PAF).

Motus on the other hand on the device currently in force, as on the one that will be operational in the coming days.

While waiting for the arrival of reinforcements promised by the Head of State, the mobile gendarmes are maneuvering at the historic "border" of Menton Saint-Ludovic, where the old building in the shape of a dome still stands on the seaside. wing typical of the sixties.

This Tuesday morning, no one escapes their vigilance.

The Saint-Ludovic border post in Menton, November 10, 2020. - M. Bernouin / ANP / 20 Minutes

Pedestrians, motorists, motorcyclists, French or foreign, everyone must present an identity document and proof of travel.

A measure linked ... to the confinement decreed in France due to the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Nothing to do with a counterterrorism operation.

And when the gendarmes open the back doors of the vans, it is possible illegals they are looking for.

As for years, this remains their main mission.

Toll bottleneck

A few kilometers further west, on the A8 motorway, the CRS are in charge of checks.

To facilitate operations on the most frequented border axis, four of the seven lanes of the La Turbie toll have been neutralized.

A bottleneck that generated, Tuesday in the middle of the afternoon, a line of heavy goods vehicles of several hundred meters.

Here, the police are currently carrying out selective checks, being unable to stop the 20,000 vehicles that pass through it every day.

Military reinforcements, expected for next week, could be a game-changer.

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