Tobacco. Attal presents a new three-year plan to stop the “explosion” of trafficking in France.

Public Accounts Minister Gabriel Atal will on Monday unveil a new three-year plan (2023-2025) designed to step up the fight against illegal tobacco trafficking, a phenomenon he himself fully acknowledges.explosion” In France: According to statistics published by customs, more than 284 tons of contraband cigarettes were seized in 2020, 402 tons in 2021 and already more than 600 tons, including more than two-thirds of cigarettes, in the first ten months of 2022.

Program of authoritiesaims to adapt the customs response to the unprecedented scale of the parallel tobacco marketGabriel Atal explained in a document obtained by AFP on Saturday. Among other important measures, it plans to deploy dozens of vans equipped with X-ray scanners that can screen a car in sixty seconds at a cost of €45 million, the document details.

“cybertabac” network

This plan also announces the formation of anti-trafficking groups on the model tested in Lyon.”able to conduct operations and investigationsin the nine main smuggling areas of the republic.

network”cyber cigaretteswill also be deployed to monitor traffic on the Internet or social networks, and efforts will be made to develop toolsscientific practiceswhich make it possible to identify the origin of contraband cigarettes to better understand trafficking circles. Gabriel Attal finally celebrates the opening of the reflection with his fellow seal keeper Eric Dupont-Moretti, aiming to “strengthening of sanctions» Criminal proceedings against buyers, sellers and producers of contraband cigarettes.

“Unexpected rush of the parallel market”.

“I have set a clear task for the customs to stop the rapid growth of the parallel market by 2025.– concludes the minister. A sign of the viability of traffic, tolls found in December 2021 and last September in the same city of Poincy (Saint-et-Marne) two “.factoriesof secret tobacco production, the first was dismantled in France.

Cigarette smugglingbegins to take on aspects drug trafficking Florian Colas, head of the Customs Intelligence Department (DNRED), told AFP.

“Criminal organizations use any means to generate revenue– he added, referring to:road, express and postal shipments, social media orders, heavily loaded container flows, cigarette mules filling flights and secret factories“. The public accounts minister is due to present the 2023-2025 plan on Monday for the Pyrénées-Orientales region, one of the favorite routes for smuggled cigarettes bound for France.