Customs will be massively deployed in Marseille on the sidelines of the Olympic Games, on roads, in stations but also at sea, where agents are currently training.
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In Marseille, customs is preparing to increase controls for the Olympic Games this summer. Customs agents will be deployed on roads, in train stations, airports and ports. The objective is to put the city “under a bell”, to prevent illegal trafficking: drugs, tobacco, counterfeiting, etc. Customs will also be present at sea to secure the arrival of the Olympic flame and the sailing events in the harbor of Marseille. Franceinfo attended one of their offshore training sessions, near Toulon.
It is the largest French customs patrol vessel, the Jean François Deniau – 53 meters long – which will be positioned in Marseille harbor for the duration of the Olympic Games. It is equipped with two rapid intervention boats. One of them has just been launched. Eric Salles is head of operations for the customs coast guard in the Mediterranean: “So there, concretely, on board, you have eight people. Eight specialized agents who are trained to come into contact with targets and sometimes recalcitrant people, that is to say drug traffickers, in particular.”
“You have to be extremely fast and stealthy”
Eight armed and hooded customs officers are seated in bucket seats. Their boat can reach 100 km/h. For today’s exercise, they chase a towing boat. When they reached it, the customs officers jumped on board: “That’s done in a minute, comments Eric Salles. You have to be extremely fast and stealthy to prevent the people on board from having to prepare. The training is obviously used for the Olympics since we could be required to make interventions.”
Interventions around the Olympic water body which will host the sailing events, in the harbor of Marseille, specifies the head of operations: “We must prevent boaters who do not understand the regulations, or people who would like to disrupt activities, from placing themselves in the wrong place. And then, there are potential areas of offshore intrusion that must be avoided. So that too is subject to surveillance before arrival in Marseille.”
And because the Olympic Games will attract crowds, customs officers also expect more tobacco trafficking and counterfeit goods. By controlling the boats, they also intend to get their hands on potential shipments of fireworks or smoke bombs: “With pyrotechnic devices, we can disrupt, from a distance, the smooth running of the events. So we must avoid having circulation of this type of product as we approach the Olympic sites.” During the Olympics, the Marseille harbor will be monitored 24 hours a day by customs.