French Customs Seize 5,700 Andorran Cigarette Packets in Toulouse Operations
Toulouse-Frouzins brigade intercepted over 5,700 smuggled cigarettes from Andorra in two early January busts, including abandoned stash and.
Key Points
- Over 1,700 packets found abandoned in a ditch near Toulouse on Jan 3 after smugglers fled checkpoint.
- More than 4,000 packets seized from 'go-fast' vehicle on Pamplona-Toulouse highway on Jan 5.
- Cigarettes sourced from Pas de la Casa in Andorra; total haul exceeds 5,700 packets.
- Confiscated tobacco to be incinerated; smugglers face heavy penalties amid intensified border checks.
French customs officers from the Toulouse-Frouzins brigade seized more than 5,700 packets of Andorran cigarettes in two operations carried out in early January.
The first incident occurred on Saturday, January 3, at the entrance to the Toulouse metropolitan area. Officers spotted several suspicious vehicles previously flagged by border services. They later found over 1,700 packets hidden in a ditch, which authorities believe smugglers abandoned to evade a checkpoint.
The second operation took place in the early hours of January 5 on the highway between Pamies and Toulouse. Agents stopped a high-speed vehicle operating in a "go-fast" style and discovered more than 4,000 packets inside, sourced from Pas de la Casa in Andorra. Conditions were marked by cold weather and the smugglers' rapid maneuvers.
The confiscated tobacco will be incinerated, and those responsible face heavy penalties. These actions underscore France's heightened surveillance along common smuggling routes from Andorra.
Original Sources
This article was aggregated from the following Catalan-language sources: