French Customs Seize Tobacco in Chase, Warehouse Raided Amid Road Closure

French customs officers seized 363 cartons of Andorran tobacco valued at €46,000 early this week following a pursuit near Toulouse. The Frouzins brigade identified a suspicious vehicle traveling south from the city during a surveillance operation. Upon reaching a roadblock in Labarthe, the driver reversed course and accelerated onto back roads in Eaunes, where the car lodged in a ravine. Officers retrieved the cargo, but the occupants escaped. No arrests followed, and authorities incinerated the cigarettes.

Separately, burglars raided a customs warehouse in L'Hospitalet-près-l'Andorre last week, taking previously confiscated tobacco and alcohol destined for the French market. Located along the N-22 route roughly two kilometers from Pas de la Casa, the facility lacked an alarm system. The break-in occurred after a January 31 landslide shut the RN-20 highway between Mérens and Ax-les-Thermes—known locally as Acs—for about three months, leaving the area isolated with access limited to trains from Ax-les-Thermes, even for law enforcement. This has curtailed patrols amid sharply reduced smuggling activity and cross-border traffic.

The Foix public prosecutor's office has confirmed the theft at the Ariège site and launched a probe into how intruders gained entry and who was involved. Prosecutor Olivier Mouysset has offered no further details. Investigators are considering links to smuggling groups hit by shortages from the road closure, as well as possibilities like internal complicity. No drugs were held at the site, and the volume stolen has not been revealed.

These incidents underscore vulnerabilities in L'Hospitalet, home to around 900 people and prone to tobacco and alcohol trafficking, illegal migration, and smuggler disputes. Derelict vehicles from abandoned runs litter roads that normally handle 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles daily. To counter this, the Ariège prefecture will convert a mobile gendarmerie brigade into a permanent unit, centralizing officers in a single base after closing an earlier outpost in 2025. Including judicial police, the brigade works with Andorran forces and Spain's Guardia Civil on Occitanie missions. Plans are set, backed by a €3 million allocation, to bolster security and expand staffing.