On the airport platform of Roissy, in the small customs seizure museum, there are kilos of cocaine coarsely packed in a bag, boxes of medicines, a Sig Sauer assault rifle and harmless postage stamps from the Royal mail with the effigy of the Queen of England.
It is an anthology of the most beautiful catches made by customs agents for the year 2019. Weighing a real gold bar, also intercepted, Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Budget, did this Thursday a detailed review to the management interregional under the leadership of Isabelle Braun-Lemaire, director general of customs and Philippe Legué, interregional director of customs at Paris airports (DIPA).
Mask seizures increase by 3000%
The opportunity to learn about new forms of traffic. Out of competition, surgical masks will surely break records in this year 2020. Customs has recorded a 3,000% jump in seizures since March.
“These are false certificates, products that do not meet standards,” says Isabelle Braun-Lemaire. Our difficulty was to cope with a huge flow of 40,000 declarations, or orders in a few months. “
Criminal networks are diversifying and some also set their sights on the everyday products of postage stamps. Last October, 240,000 counterfeit British stamps were discovered in express freight by the unit dedicated to customs clearance at Roissy.
Stamps, a new trend
In total, almost 500,000 forged stamps ended up in the hands of customs officials. “This is a new trend since 2018 which is explained by the increase in the price of stamps,” says Philippe Legué. These pale copies “come essentially from Hong Kong. Each country has its specialties: Malaysia was the blue card… Organized criminal structures are at the head of this traffic, “adds the interregional director.
Medicines are also safe havens for high-profile crime. Thus, on February 27, the external brigade of the customs of Roissy controls at Le Bourget, not far from the airport, a couple aboard a vehicle. On board, they discovered 32,000 tablets of medication, including Tramadol, an opiate, or Xanax, an anxiolytic.
Medicines diverted from their use
All these remedies are diverted from their use for festive consumption. A search will reveal 30,000 additional stamps as well as empty packaging to reconstruct traffic involving more than 500,000 stamps. € 54,000 in cash will be seized from a safe at the traffickers’ homes.
The couple obtained the drugs with the help of an accomplice pharmacist and shipped the goods to Vietnam. The couple were already known for social security scams. “Seine-Saint-Denis is one of the departments where these traffics are organized,” said the customs officer.
More than 2 tonnes of cocaine seized, a first
Drugs and cigarettes are still breaking records too. And the year 2,019 is no exception to the rule. “It is the first time that we have exceeded 2 tonnes of cocaine,” says Philippe Legué. 720 mules were arrested at the two major Parisian airports, Roissy and Orly.
