Authorities Uncover First Ever Counterfeit Cigarette Factory in France

In January, more than 60 officers from the French National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale) raided a location in France, which was found to be an underground factory for counterfeit tobacco. The investigation was initiated as a result of information shared with France by Europol at the end of 2022.

During the raids, the French officers arrested nine suspects, most of them Moldovan nationals. They uncovered a quasi-industrial set-up for the production of counterfeit cigarettes in large quantities, separated into three zones.

One zone was for processing raw tobacco to produce boxes of cigarettes labelled as well-known brands sold on the legal market. Another was for storing large boxes of counterfeit cigarettes. And the third zone was used as a living area for workers, containing 15 beds, a kitchen and a living room. This allowed the workers to live at the factory, completely cut off from the external world.

During the raids, the officers seized more than 100 tonnes of illegal products, including 55 tonnes of cigarettes in boxes (19.4 million cigarettes and 15 tonnes of cut tobacco), 50 tonnes of packaging materials such as paper, filters and labels, as well as 18 tonnes of waste from the cigarette production process. The estimated value of the seized tobacco is about €17 million.

Further to this, the officers seized vehicles, factory machinery and electronic equipment. The seizures also included more than one tonne of food products, later donated to food banks. The seized tobacco and counterfeit products were destroyed.

Europol facilitated the information exchange and provided specialised analytical support. On the day of the raid, Europol supported the French authorities by cross-checking operational information against Europol’s databases in real-time and providing leads to investigators in the field.