Customs Seize 73,705 Euros Hidden in Vehicle on A31 Motorway – Dijon Customs Detain 3 Individuals

On November 14, the Dijon Customs Internal Surveillance Brigade (BSI) carried out a check on the A31 motorway near the Til-Châtel interchange on a vehicle registered in Malta. Customs officers found 73,705 euros hidden in the floor of the vehicle. The 3 occupants of the vehicle were placed in customs detention.

The vehicle came from Malta, according to the statements of the 3 occupants (two brothers and their cousin) to go to Belgium to buy a purebred dog. A press release from the Dijon Regional Customs Directorate tells us more.

While the occupants claim to want to go to Belgium, customs officers find a destination programmed in the Netherlands on the vehicle’s GPS. During the search of the vehicle, customs officers found “by lifting the carpet at the level of the boot floor under the retractable seats” that “the sheet metal is smooth and the welds appear artisanal.”

The customs officers dismantle the seats with a crowbar and “discovered a cache containing several smell-proof bags, airtight bags intended to mask odors for dogs specializing in the search for narcotics or cash, as well as an open jar of Vaporub. In these bags, the customs officers found 7 cellophane packages containing numerous wads of euro notes, for a total of 73,705 euros.”

The three individuals were placed in customs detention for “failure to comply with the capital declaration obligation and customs laundering”. They are the subject of a summons by a Judicial Police officer on July 4, 2024.

According to article 415 of the national customs code, the penalties incurred are:

• for failure to comply with the reporting obligation: fine of 50% of the amount in violation + confiscation of the amount.
• for money laundering: 10 years in prison + fine of 1 to 5 times the amount in violation + confiscation of the amount in violation and the property and assets which are the direct or indirect product of the offense.

On the obligation to declare cash, the Regional Customs Directorate recalls that “cash, bearer negotiable instruments (checks, traveler’s checks, money orders, promissory notes, etc.), gold and prepaid cards in an amount greater than or equal to 10,000 euros (or their equivalent in foreign currency), transported by a person, must be declared to the customs administration, in order to combat the laundering of money originating from illicit trafficking, in particular drug trafficking. The declaration must be made using the DALIA online declaration service (on douane.gouv.fr)”

Customs seized or identified 175.5 million euros by fighting against financial fraud in 2022 with 233 cas customs laundering and 2544 infractions concerning the obligation to declare the transport of sums equal to or greater than 10,000 euros.