Yanis Darras
modified to
09:31, June 08, 2023
The Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal was the guest of Europe 1 this Thursday. At the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk, he returned to the fight against tobacco trafficking in France, which is taking up more and more space in the country. While a large-scale operation, called “Colbert”, is underway, the minister wants to increase the penalties against traffickers.
Fight against the trafficking of contraband tobacco in France: this is the objective of customs officers who have launched since May 31, nearly 300 checks across the country thanks to operation “Colbert”. A large-scale operation even as France is increasingly becoming a hub for this illegal tobacco in Europe.
increase the penalties
So far, customs officers “seize 70% of the narcotics that are seized on our soil”, but they have seen new traffic appear, underlines Gabriel Attal at the microphone of Europe 1. “We have seen an explosion in tobacco trafficking , smuggling or counterfeiting. We see mafia criminal networks that are turning more and more to tobacco, thinking that it will bring them back who take less risk”, he believes.
For the Minister of Public Accounts, the picture drawn is clear: “we do not scare enough” smugglers. “And me, my desire is to scare them and punish them. So I have several levers and we are going to increase the penalties. There is a law that is under discussion in Parliament for trafficking of tobacco in which we are going to increase the penalty incurred from one to three years in prison, and from five to ten years in an organized gang.
Other operations to come
Above all, Gabriel Attal wants an additional penalty for foreign sellers present on French soil. “We have added to this text of the law a measure which is debating, including with the left, an additional ban on French territory for street vendors of tobacco who are often foreigners”.
But despite this toughening of the penalties incurred, the minister knows that the road to eradicate this traffic is still long. So, “we have to have times when we have extremely strong punch operations. Times when we are going to pound the deal points, pound the traffic, harass the traffickers”, he insists at the Sonia Mabrouk’s microphone. “I am investing in particular over the next two years 45 million euros to increase the number of scanners, dog handlers, and all our tools which will allow us to better control”. And assures him: “There will be other Colbert operations at the national and local level”.