Twenty suspected members of an international network that imports counterfeit cigarettes from Eastern Europe will stand trial at the French judiciary in Bordeaux from Monday to Friday. It is a “large-scale” trade with 77 tonnes in 2020, or around 4 million packs.
Returned to the criminal court, they are suspected of supplying several French cities with Slovenian-made cigarettes, particularly Marlboro imitations, with a price estimated at 20 million euros ($29.7 million) by manufacturer Philip Morris. estimated margin.
Originally from Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and even Bosnia-Herzegovina, they have to answer for the crime of fraudulent import or sale of tobacco in an organized gang and, in some cases, serious money laundering. You face ten years in prison and a fine of up to ten times the value of the fraud.
For Marie-Caroline Blaise, the Georgia-born lawyer for one of the defendants, “the involvement of the protagonists has been exaggerated” and the trial must make it possible to “restore the truth.”
Nineteen of the twenty defendants appear free.
For Christian Blazy, who defends a father and son born in Armenia, the suspects are “small hands.”
“We really have the least traffic. And of course those at the top don’t come to France,” he argues, finding it “surprising” that Philip Morris claims civil party status.
Discreet hangars
According to prosecutors in Bordeaux, western France, the cigarettes were transported by truck from Slovenia before being stored in boxes in France. Bought for around 13 euros, the criminals sold the cartridge for twice as much, i.e. around a quarter of the retail price at the time on the French market.
According to the indictment, this “particularly mobile” network fueled the cigarette trade in the cities of Nantes, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Béziers in the west and south of France.
“The investigation and the evidence collected make it possible to prove that the smuggling of 77 tons of cigarettes was made possible between October and December 2020,” estimates the public prosecutor’s office.
In April 2021, an initial operation focused on wholesalers led to the arrest of seven people in France, leading to the first charges before the specialized inter-regional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Bordeaux.
In coordination with the Slovenian judicial authorities, searches took place in January 2022 at several production facilities in Slovenia, “housed in discreet hangars in remote locations,” according to the prosecutor's office. They made it possible to confiscate more than 26 tons of raw tobacco, 29 million cigarette filters and several production machines.
“These volumes illustrate the extent of the smuggling of counterfeit cigarettes in Europe,” the indictment adds.
In 2022, French customs officials seized nearly 650 tons of contraband tobacco, an increase of nearly 60% in a year.