Paris (AFP)
French customs seized 360.3 tonnes of contraband tobacco and cigarettes in 2019, record figures up 49% released Tuesday by the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts.
These seizures represent 162 million euros in value and the equivalent of 18 million packets of cigarettes from clandestine circuits. 45% of seizures relate to cigarettes, the rest representing any other form of tobacco (hookah, roll-your-own tobacco ...)
Among the major seizures last year was that of February 26, 2019 in the port of Calais, where 9.6 tonnes of cigarettes were discovered in a truck registered in Poland.
The missions devoted in 2019 by customs to the fight against tobacco and cigarette trafficking are also up, by 24% (110,916 in total).
"These excellent figures show that the fight against contraband tobacco has become the priority of customs", underlines Bercy, a wish formulated by the government in 2018. This year had already been marked by increasing figures in terms of seizures (16,171, + 15.1%) and volume (241 tonnes, + 1.2%).
Since May 2019, a device (barcode and sticker) has been used to guarantee the traceability and authenticity of each package present on the territory.
While the price of the pack of cigarettes of the reference brand will gradually drop to 10 euros at the end of 2020, customs officials will now be authorized to set up tools to track and identify, on social networks, the sellers of counterfeit tobacco.
© 2020 AFP