“The value of this tobacco varies between 3 and 4 million euros, excluding taxes.
The equivalent of 10 million euros on the legal market ”, assures Gisèle Clément, regional director of customs and indirect rights of Poitiers.
This Thursday in La Rochelle, customs officers destroyed 14 t of loose tobacco in an incineration center in the agglomeration.
The 14 tonnes of loose tobacco were destroyed in an incineration center in the agglomeration of La Rochelle.
Fabien PAILLOT
This "piece of evidence" was seized on March 30 on the A10, between Niort and Bordeaux, during an ordinary road check carried out by customs officers from La Rochelle.
No one will know more: "The investigation is ongoing and the traffickers also read the newspapers", reframes Gisèle Clément who prefers to keep silent the exact circumstances of this catch of an "exceptional" scale.
She barely agrees to give the driver's nationality: "Portuguese, but that does not mean that he knew what he was conveying, just like the transporter", she specifies.
The administrative documents indicated the presence of ... packing boxes.
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President of the Chambre Syndicale des tobacconistes de Charente-Maritime, Jacky Revillé is delighted with this result.
“We have before us a clean product, in packaging quite similar to those used by professionals.
Those who did that are not beginners, ”he says.
According to figures put forward by his corporation, 30.3% of tobacco and cigarette purchases were made last year “outside the networks”, 23% of which came directly from smuggling and counterfeiting.
“We are discovering more and more counterfeit cigarettes,” confirms Gisèle Clément.
In 2020, 284.5 tonnes of tobacco were seized in France during 15,441 “findings”.