a major cigarette smuggling network dismantled
Vast crackdown in the middle of cigarette smuggling. Monday, May 16, the police arrested three individuals aged 19, 43 and 48, after an investigation by the Departmental Securityannounces a press release from the public prosecutor of Toulouse.
The suspects were arrested in cars used for cigarette smuggling operations. The police will thus get their hands on 370 cartons of cigarettes from the Principality ofAndorra.
Searches of suspects’ homes
Searches were also granted at the homes of the three individuals. On the spot, the investigators flushed out no less than 209 cartridges additional, 15 packets of rolling tobacco as well as 8,000 euros, specifies the parquet floor of Toulouse.
The investigation revealed the existence of 4 other individuals suspected of belonging to this network. They are aged 19, 47, 53 and 56. They were arrested at their home and again, the police will make a very good price with 426 cartons of cigarettes, 20 packs of tobacco and nearly 24,000 euros.
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Five individuals remanded in custody
Six individuals were brought to justice and were indicted for “importing and possessing smuggled tobacco”. Five were placed in custody. The sixth was released under judicial control.
The investigation continues “under the direction of the investigating judge in order to identify the other authors, co-authors or accomplices of the traffic and all the beneficiaries”, revealed the press release from the prosecutor.
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A first Customs inquiry
This investigation began in March with an initial questioning of Customs in Porta in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Two individuals in two vehicles had tried to evade a control but were finally arrested with 293 cartons of cigarettes and 8.8 kg of hand-rolling tobacco imported smuggled.
A court information had been opened on March 10 and the investigation had been entrusted to the Departmental Security. The police had succeeded in implicating a family of smugglers who operated between the metropolis and Andorra.
The investigative acts carried out on the rogatory commission of a Toulouse investigating judge would confirm the traffic, the alleys and places between Toulouse and Andorra and the numerous contacts with accomplices used for transport, against remuneration”, explains Samuel Vuelta-Simon, the prosecutor of Toulouse.
Accomplices or associates, as well as vehicles, storage locations and modus operandi were quickly uncovered. These people have been charged.
An increase in cigarette trafficking in 2021
Cigarette trafficking, often organized by the same networks that we find in the increase in drug trafficking, is one of the criminal scourges that impacts the jurisdiction of Toulouse and has started again since 2021″, explains Samuel Vuelta-Simon.
“Leaving aside the consequences on the functioning of the official distribution network controlled by the state, the traffic promotes a parallel economy whose illegal earnings are reinvested in other illegal activities: drug trafficking is one of them, the financing of terrorism can be another. In addition, contraband tobacco can also be counterfeit tobacco, without any guarantee for the end consumer”, concluded the prosecutor who does not exclude that such crimes will multiply.