More than 100 tonnes of illegal tobacco products have been seized from an underground factory in France.
During the raid, officers from the French National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale) arrested nine suspects, most of them Moldovan nationals, and discovered a “quasi-industrial set-up for the production of counterfeit cigarettes in large quantities”. The investigation came as a result of information shared with France by Europol.
The officers seized more than 100 tonnes of illegal products including 55 tonnes of cigarettes in boxes (19.4 million cigarettes and 15 tonnes of cut tobacco), 50 tonnes of packaging materials such as paper, filters and labels, as well as 18 tonnes of waste from the cigarette production process. The estimated value of the seized tobacco is about €17m. Further to this, the officers seized vehicles, factory machinery and electronic equipment. The seizures also included over a tonne of food products, later donated to food banks. The seized tobacco and counterfeit products were destroyed.
The factory was broken up into three separate zones. One of the zones was dedicated to the processing of raw tobacco to produce boxes of cigarettes labelled as well-known brands sold on the legal market. Another zone was dedicated to the storage of large boxes of counterfeit cigarettes. The third zone was used as a living area for the workers with some 15 beds, a kitchen and a living room. According to Europol, this allowed the workers to live at the factory, completely cut off from the external world.
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