In 2020, counterfeits exploded, with nearly 6 million items seized in France, an increase of 20% compared to 2019. According to figures from the annual customs report, they intercepted 285 tonnes of cigarettes, 800,000 clothes or 130,000 counterfeit medicines last year.
“You have what I call the noble traffic of thugs: arms trafficking, drug trafficking, counterfeiting… These are organizations of fraud. Drug trafficking, like that of counterfeits, has increased throughout France.”
Guy Jean-Baptiste, Operational Director of Marseille Customsat franceinfo
For example, it is estimated that one in five smartphones and one in four game consoles are counterfeits. The list of trafficked products has no limits, and they are responsible for an estimated loss of revenue of 83 billion euros for the European Union. Added to this are the uncollected tax revenues, but also the loss, for Europe, of more than 600,000 jobs.
In France, Marseille is a major communication node, located halfway between Italy and Spain. With its motorway network, container port and Marignane airport, it is a smuggling hub. Except to inspect each ship, train or plane, the customs officers move only on the basis of a minimum of indices.
“There’s no point in running in nature. We don’t do marauding! When the agents in my area go on a mission, they know what they’re going to look for, why they’re going there. We don’t drive much, we observe a lot and we act when we have a chance to catch all these beautiful people,” adds Guy Jean Baptiste.
Thus, in one year, Marseille customs intercepted two million euros leaving for foreign countries, probably a tiny part of the reality. To detect these banknotes, customs officers rely in particular on specially trained dogs, underlines Luc Doumont, president of the international association of French-speaking customs officers.
“We have teams of dog handlers whose dogs are specialized in explosives, narcotics, tobacco. We even have some now that detect banknotes! And we sometimes discover large sums, of the order of 60,000 or 70,000 euros on board private vehicles.”
Luc Doumont, president of the AIDFat franceinfo
And if the traffickers benefit from considerable means to organize their networks, the customs have a whole material paraphernalia (drones, planes, helicopters) and a significant monitoring capacity on social networks.
We saw this in particular last October, when a cargo ship was intercepted off Dunkirk, with an accomplice crew and a ton of cocaine on board.