Six men were sentenced Friday, March 26 in Lyon for a vast tobacco trafficking to six-month prison terms suspended to three years of imprisonment, two of which are closed.
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Six men aged 23 to 29 were sentenced on Friday March 26 in Lyon for widespread tobacco trafficking, to six-month prison terms suspended three years’ imprisonment, two of which are closed. The Lyon Criminal Court followed the prosecution’s requisitions, pronounced during the hearing on January 15.
Four of the tobacco traffickers were sentenced to a customs fine of 1.4 million euros and, among them, three were also sentenced to a tax penalty of one million euros, for fraudulent sale of tobacco. The court also ordered the confiscation of the phones and a total sum of 76,395 euros, found during searches carried out in January 2020 in Bron, Décines, Meyzieu and Vaulx-en-Velin. According to the Lyon-Dijon financial investigation department, the team made up of five brothers and an accomplice, from the Lyon suburbs, imported 11.7 tonnes of counterfeit Marlboro brand cigarettes, between 2018 and 2020 .
The network made trips from Belgium, organizing convoys equipped with opening cars and carrier cars, comparable to those used in the importation of narcotics. The packages were sold for 3 to 5 euros, often using social networks. According to the prosecution’s calculation, the group of dealers collected around 30,000 euros per month, for ten months. This generated a tax loss estimated at 4.4 million euros. For the company Philip Moris, a civil party in the lawsuit, this case illustrated the considerable increase in the consumption of counterfeit tobacco in the Lyon region, from 1.5 to 20% of total tobacco consumption during the year. 2020, after sanitary confinement. (AFP)
