Europe 1 with AFP 11:49 a.m., June 30, 2022, modified at 11:50 a.m., June 30, 2022

On June 20, a van refusing to comply with a check was chased in the Allier by customs officers from Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Étienne, who intercepted it and discovered 4 pallets of contraband cigarettes inside.

A search of a nearby warehouse reveals the presence of 30 additional pallets, or 13.6 tons in total.

Customs officers recently seized more than 13 tonnes of contraband cigarettes in Allier and 8.7 tonnes of hookah tobacco in Seine-et-Marne, according to a press release from the Ministry of the Economy.

On June 20, a van refusing to comply with a check was chased in the Allier by customs officers from Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Étienne, who intercepted it and discovered four pallets of contraband cigarettes inside.

A search of a nearby warehouse reveals the presence of 30 additional pallets, or 13.6 tons in total.

Three people were charged and imprisoned.

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Two days earlier, according to the same source, the interior surveillance brigade of Marne-la-Vallée checked a heavy goods vehicle arriving from Belgium on the A104 motorway, whose trailer contained seven pallets of hookah tobacco transported illegally, i.e. 4.7 tons.

Four additional tons and a sum of 146,000 euros in cash are discovered in a warehouse following the investigation.

Three people are summoned to court in September in connection with this case.

These large seizures are in addition to a previous one in Drôme in February (nearly 29 tons) and another in Seine-Saint-Denis in May (8 tons).

In 2021, customs officers seized more than 400 tonnes of contraband tobacco in France.