Paris, December 4 (Prensa Latina) French Public Finance Minister Gabriel Attal today announced aspects of a three-year plan (2023-2025) to combat tobacco and cigarette smuggling, a phenomenon that is increasingly occurring in the country.
We are facing a very lucrative, growing trade involving mafia organizations and financing very serious crimes, he warned in statements to the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche on the eve of the initiative’s official presentation.
According to the official, the goal of the new plan is to stop smuggling and harass traffickers.
France took more than 280 tons of tobacco and cigarettes in 2020, around 400 last year and around 600 so far this year.
Attal reiterated that the government’s strategy against this illegality is to monitor, intercept and bring to justice those responsible.
We want to punish smugglers with the same severity as drug dealers, he said.