Some 500,000 packets of contraband cigarettes, or around ten tonnes of illicit tobacco intended to supply the parallel market in the Lyon region, were seized in Burgundy, customs announced on Tuesday as reported by our colleagues from JSL.
Agents of the Lons-le-Saunier (Jura) brigade intercepted on Tuesday May 24, in the early morning, on the A6 motorway in Saint-Rémi (Saône-et-Loire), a Polish truck to check its load.
Driver sentenced to 15 months in prison
The vehicle, coming from Belgium, was officially supposed to deliver packaging materials in the Lyon region but the opening of the pallets revealed the presence of a large number of cartons of cigarettes, worth five million euros on the market legal tobacco, indicates the release of the customs.
The Chalon-sur-Saône prosecutor’s office sent the driver back to the criminal court, which sentenced him to 15 months in prison on Monday.
Cigarette trafficking is regularly the subject of arrest and conviction in Lyon.
In March 2018, nearly 122,000 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes were found in three boxes in Miribel, Vénissieux and Villeurbanne. Last March, 2.5 tonnes of counterfeit cigarettes were seized by customs in the Lyon region.
These cartridges of contraband cigarettes are transported in the metropolis and resold on the sly in different places, such as at La Guillotière or last May, a major traffic was dismantled.
In 2021, more than 400 tonnes of contraband tobacco were seized in France, a figure up 41% year on year.