Checking passenger baggage at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, July 3, 2024. DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP
The theater of operations doesn’t have the glitz and glamour of the Olympic venues. In 17 warehouses scattered around eastern Paris, during simultaneous checks on Wednesday, July 31, over 145,000 counterfeit items destined for the Olympics were seized. These slightly rough-looking “Phryges” plush toys, upside-down T-shirts bearing the rings and running shoes mimicking those of major brands join the vast inventory of “obvious counterfeits” often originating from China, compiled by customs in the course of an international hunt begun seven months earlier.
“The French market is clearly targeted, and the Olympic Games – like the Euro football tournament – represent a business opportunity for criminal organizations,” said Corinne Cléostrate, deputy director of the fight against fraud at the French customs. “The Olympics can be a godsend for criminal groups,” added Simon Decressac, regional director of customs at Roissy-Voyageurs.
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Beyond the event-related goods, the joyful saturation of the airport’s terminals, with its surplus of passengers and equipment to be moved through as quickly as possible, is seen as an opportunity to smuggle illicit products. “We’re making continuous seizures of tobacco, narcotics and drugs, but it’s too early to talk about an Olympic effect,” said Cléostrate. “As for doping products,” she continued, “the findings of the last few days relate to private orders made over the internet, for bodybuilding in particular, but nothing linked to competitions.”
Upstream supplies
Customs intelligence had warned of another ploy on commercial flights occupied by certain Olympic delegations, the presence of “mules” taking advantage of the opportunity to transport drugs in their suitcases. Such infiltrations would target the usual cocaine source countries – South America and West Africa, which have become a strategic “rebound zone.” On Sunday, July 28 a young Brazilian woman was arrested on a flight from Dakar, but outside the Olympic context. One of her suitcases contained 8 kg of cocaine – worth over €500,000 on resale (nearly $550,000).
In the case of cocaine and other stimulants, which health authorities fear will be consumed in higher-than-usual quantities during the festivities, specialist investigators believe that supplies had been secured upstream. On July 14, 107 kg of cocaine was discovered at Roissy in suitcases arriving from Fort-de-France, Martinique – 52 kg was found in small compact bags filling a passenger’s luggage, then another 55 kg was discovered a few minutes later inside other suitcases abandoned on the conveyor belt.
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Publish date : 2024-08-03 14:37:00
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