A very large factory of counterfeit cigarettes was dismantled this week in Saint-Aubin-les-Elbeuf, near Rouen (Seine-Maritime) by the gendarmerie who seized more than 100 tonnes of products. Nine people were arrested and taken into custody.
The Research Section (SR) of Rouen (Seine-Maritime) has dismantled “the largest factory of counterfeit cigarettes in activity discovered in France”in Saint-Aubin-lès-Elbeuf, in Seine-Maritime, this Thursday, January 12, 2023.
The traffic was brought to light by information, via Europol, transmitted at the end of 2022 to the Rouen research section, reporting international cigarette trafficking in a warehouse in an industrial zone in Saint-Aubin-les-Elbeuf. , near Rouen (Seine-Maritime).
Investigators discover rotations of trucks loading and unloading bulky boxes and pallets. On January 12, when two 38-ton trucks arrived on the scene, around sixty gendarmes invaded the factory.
More than 100 tons of products (55 tons of cigarettes, 50 tons of labels, paper filters, packaging, and 18 tons of tobacco residues and cigarette waste) were seized.
The resale price of seized counterfeit tobacco is estimated at 13.7 million euros.
On the spot, the investigators discover a real cigarette factory with a production unit comprising two lines, one for making cigarettes from raw tobacco, another dedicated to packaging in packets, then in cartridges in the name of a well-known manufacturer. . There is a storage area where the cartons of cigarettes are packaged in cardboard on film-covered pallets, all ready for delivery.
Finally, a living area completes the set, with a dormitory equipped with beds, a kitchen area, a dining area and a relaxation area that allowed criminals to live on site. There was also a generator.
All seized products were destroyed immediately, as well as the production machines, said the national gendarmerie. The gendarmes also seized two road sets (38-tonne tractors and semi-trailers), elevators, pallet trucks, tools, household appliances and a ton of foodstuffs which were donated to the food bank.
/regions/2023/01/15/63c41295c7a67_000-337462l.jpg)
Nine people, all of foreign nationality, aged 21 to 55, were arrested and placed in police custody. The majority of these people are of Moldovan nationality.
In view of the scope of this case, the Rouen public prosecutor’s office has withdrawn in favor of the Junalco (national jurisdiction for the fight against organized crime) of Paris, which has requested in particular the Central Office for the Fight against Itinerant Delinquency (OCLDI) and the judicial investigation department of Finance (SEJF).
The nine people arrested were presented Saturday afternoon to the Paris prosecutor’s office for the opening of a judicial investigation.
It is now the largest clandestine factory discovered to date in France. The first was in December 2021 by customs in Poincy, a small town in Seine-et-Marne of 750 inhabitants. Since this “first”, two other clandestine workshops have been uncovered: a packaging site in La Longueville (North) and a storage place in Poincy, again.
The traffic is booming: more than 284 tons of contraband tobacco were seized in 2020 in France, 402 tons in 2021 and more than 600 tons, including more than two thirds of cigarettes, in the first ten months of 2022.
With AFP