France Honors Andorra Police and Mayor for Busting €1M Tobacco Smuggling Ring

French authorities recognised the efforts of Andorra's anti-fraud police unit and Mayor Azahara Cascales on Tuesday during an event in Prada de Conflent. The ceremony acknowledged their cooperation in a joint judicial operation with Andorran customs and France's national gendarmerie, known in the Principality as Operation Aigua.

The investigation, launched in April 2024, targeted large-scale tobacco smuggling from Andorra to France. Police and customs set up surveillance on vehicles crossing from France, identifying weekly nighttime deliveries of around 500 cartons of tobacco. A 37-year-old Andorran resident allegedly handled handovers using public facilities and a storage unit.

Judicial oversight expanded the probe with French collaboration, uncovering links to a tobacco distribution company. Its 64-year-old director reportedly supplied the tobacco to the resident, with invoices issued to a Pas de la Casa shop under investigation for money laundering from smuggling proceeds. The shop's 43-year-old owner was among those arrested.

In February 2025, four people were detained in Andorra: the resident, the distributor director, the shop owner, and a 20-year-old non-resident caught in Canillo with 6,250 packets of tobacco worth nearly 24,500 euros in a French-registered vehicle. Searches of the shop, company premises, and homes yielded 70,000 euros in cash, electronic devices, documents, and five vehicles.

Two more men, aged 32 and 44, were arrested in March 2025 for alleged tobacco supply. One home search revealed a vehicle with a false bottom used to conceal goods and led to seizure of another car.

In France, several convoys were intercepted, culminating in January 2026 with the arrest of a couple leading the network during a joint operation dubbed "Primavera" by French forces. They allegedly exploited undocumented immigrants for transports, tying the group to human trafficking.

Police estimate the network moved tobacco worth one million euros overall. This marked the first joint judicial operation between Andorra and France via Eurojust, the EU agency for criminal justice cooperation, forming a joint investigation team under the 2000 Palermo Convention. It involved France's GIR interministerial research group and Prada de Conflent brigade.

Attendees included Occitania gendarmerie commanders, French judges, Andorran police commissioner major Frederic Gutiérrez—head of borders and immigration—the anti-fraud team, Cascales, and judicial secretary Carme Múgica. Both sides praised the coordination as a model for future cross-border efforts against transnational organised crime.