Tobacco: government announces "new large-scale operation" against trafficking

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Philippe Huguen / AFP 17:25 p.m., October 19, 2023

The Minister of Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave, announced on Thursday before the congress of the Confederation of Tobacconists a "new large-scale operation" in the next six months to fight against tobacco trafficking. "Fighting tobacco trafficking is an economic issue, a health issue, but also a security issue. I am aware of your concerns in this area," the minister told an audience of traders gathered in Paris for a two-day annual congress.

"I have asked customs to prepare a 'Colbert 2'" after a first operation called Colbert carried out with customs, police and gendarmerie, from May 31 to June 6, he said. "Let me give you some figures that allow you to take the measure of this operation. Over the course of a week, this represents 5,200 agents mobilized, including 2,900 customs officers, 1,200 reports and 58 arrests, nearly 9 tons of tobacco seized."

Deployment of "new mobile scanners"

Shortly before this announcement, Philippe Coy, the president of the Confederation of Tobacconists, mentioning this Colbert operation, said: "We are waiting for this type of operation to take place more regularly so that the noose does not loosen."

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Without wanting to give too many details about the future operation, Corinne Cléostrate, deputy director of customs in charge of the fight against fraud, recalled that the Colbert 1 operation had targeted all traffic points, "street vending points, controls of shops, shisha bars, grocery stores, hairdressers", as well as airports and was the occasion for a "rare" border filtering operation. In tobacco trafficking, "we are starting to have criminal networks such as narcotics, because it is easier to traffic cigarettes," acknowledged the director general of Customs, Isabelle Braun-Lemaire.

The minister also announced that the government would "deploy new mobile scanners on port platforms" next year and also "increase the number of anti-smoking dog handler teams by 25% by 2025". He recalled that the penalties for tobacco trafficking had been increased: "We have thus increased from 1 to 3 years the prison sentence incurred for the fraudulent manufacture or possession with a view to the sale of tobacco. This penalty is increased to 5 or 10 years when these offences are committed by an organized gang."

Will the "Stop Tobacco Trafficking" application soon be completed?

In addition, through the Fraud Evaluation Council set up a few days ago, the Minister hopes that "customs will move forward in the evaluation and analysis of the parallel market for tobacco products. We need to have clear figures on the reality of the parallel tobacco market in order to set ambitious targets for the fight against smuggling."

Finally, in terms of the security of tobacconists, Thomas Cazenave suggested that the "Stop Trafic Tabac" application, used to report information on trafficking by tobacconists, should be supplemented "to make it an alert tool in the event of a security risk in your shops". Asked by a tobacconist about the recent injunction of the Council of State to comply with European legislation on the quantity of tobacco authorized for import into France, the minister proposed "that urgently, we work with the confederation (of tobacconists) and that we imagine a series of measures to face this difficulty together".