The worrying rise of clandestine cigarette factories in France

For the past few years, France has been facing a growing phenomenon: tobacco counterfeiting is no longer confined to trafficking in packs or to small-scale rolling, but now runs through genuine clandestine factories set up on French soil. According to customs and intelligence services, seven illegal cigarette manufacturing plants have been dismantled in France since 2021. This industrialisation of fraud marks a break with traditional methods, which until now were focused above all on smuggling finished products from abroad. The rise of these clandestine workshops is explained in particular by the enormous margins they offer criminal networks, since each illegal pack can bring in far more than the one euro it costs to make, and by sustained demand on the black market.

Clandestine factories dismantled: methods and locations

The factories found in France between 2021 and 2025 proved highly sophisticated. They are often hidden in isolated warehouses, in the countryside or on industrial estates, well away from prying eyes. The largest ever discovered (dismantled in January 2023 near Rouen), for example, comprised three separate units: a production line to roll cigarettes from raw tobacco, another to pack the cigarettes (marked with falsified brands such as Marlboro or Winston), and a storage area where the boxes were palletised ready for dispatch. There was also a complete living area, with dormitory, kitchen and washing facilities, so that the workers could stay on site without going out. All the equipment was there: cylinder machines to filter and stack the cigarettes, stackers, balancers, compressors, generators, rolls of plastic to wrap the cartons, pre-printed Marlboro boards, reels of inner pack paper and so on. In January 2024, customs officers intercepted in Burgundy a lorry carrying 6,175 kg of manufactured tobacco together with everything needed to set up a clandestine factory: Marlboro boards and film, rolls of paper, filters, glue, factory motors and more. It was the first time that all the elements of a production line (from raw tobacco to machine parts) had been seized on the road.

These factories generally run at full capacity for a few months before being detected. According to a senior customs official, the average is about three to four months: the aim is to exploit the line to the maximum before the trail leads back to the authorities, then to move everything. The investment is huge (several hundred thousand or even a million euros for the machine tools) but is quickly recouped: working eight hours a day, the typical clandestine factory can produce 700 packs a minute (about 4,200 cartons an hour) and bring in something in the order of 80,000 to 120,000 euros of profit a day. After three months, a site that has gone unnoticed can generate several million euros of net profit.

The raw materials follow a specific route: the raw tobacco used in these factories almost always comes from abroad, from tobacco-producing countries (Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine and others). The hidden production units take delivery of tobacco that is often already partly rolled, ready to be assembled. The workforce employed is mainly foreign, from Eastern European countries. Traffickers recruit Moldovan or Ukrainian workers in particular, who have the necessary know-how. In several cases, the people arrested during the raids were all foreign nationals (Moldovans, Armenians, Spaniards, Colombians and others). Intermediaries and drivers are also frequently of Moldovan or Ukrainian origin, making use of established transnational networks. Traffickers often move in convoys of lorries or vans, carrying tobacco, dismantled machines and assorted equipment.

The figures: volumes seized and the parallel market

The phenomenon is closely tied to the heavy tax burden on tobacco in France, which makes trafficking highly profitable. Official seizure figures reflect the scale of the problem. French customs seized 649 tonnes of tobacco in 2022 (an all-time record), then 521 t in 2023 and 489 t in 2024. By comparison, seizures were only 402 t in 2021 and 284 t in 2020. These quantities include both manufactured tobacco (cigarettes and rolling tobacco) and raw tobacco intended for counterfeiting. A national operation called “Colbert 2” in March 2024, involving more than 10,000 officers, made it possible to seize 27 tonnes of tobacco in a single week, the equivalent of 20 million euros in tax revenue.

Statistically, several recent studies estimate the share of the parallel market in overall consumption. The TaFE report (on tobacco escaping national taxation) published in 2025 by the customs service and MILDECA estimates that illicit tobacco accounted for between 12.3% and 22.4% of national consumption in 2023, an average of 17.7%. In practical terms, that would correspond to about 8,000 tonnes of tobacco escaping the legal circuit in France each year, and to a shortfall in tax revenue of around 4.3 billion euros a year. These figures include every form of fraud (cross-border purchases, counterfeiting, smuggling).

At European level, the situation is just as concerning. According to the 2023 annual report by KPMG (commissioned by the tobacco industry), around 35.2 billion illicit cigarettes were consumed in the European Union in 2023, or 8.3% of total cigarette consumption in the EU. France remains the largest illicit market in Europe: it is said to account for almost half of those 35 billion (about 16.8 billion cigarettes), corresponding to 47.7% of the European total. Across the EU, that generated estimated tax losses of 11.6 billion euros in 2023, of which 7.3 billion for France alone. Moreover, the geographical spread of raids across Europe shows that these clandestine factories are multiplying: at least 113 manufacturing plants were detected and dismantled in 2023 in 22 European countries. Back in 2021, 125 factories were dismantled across Europe, mainly in Poland (70), Belgium, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Germany. These sites are moving closer to the main western markets (Germany, France, the United Kingdom) in order to cut logistics costs.

Economic and health consequences

The spread of illegal cigarette factories has many harmful effects. Economically, it seriously damages public finances and tobacconists. With tens of billions of illicit cigarettes consumed, the State loses several billion euros in tax every year (tax makes up more than 70% of the final price of cigarettes). These networks also feed the underground economy: they launder dirty money through complex systems, depriving the State of essential tax revenue. Legal small businesses such as tobacconists see their sales fall because consumers can obtain illegal cigarettes at up to three or four times less. That creates unfair competition and puts the tobacconist model, already fragile, at risk. The growth of the black market can put increased pressure on these retailers and weaken the local economic fabric.

From a health point of view, smuggled cigarettes represent a major risk. With no quality control and no compliance with standards, they may contain harmful substances in far higher quantities. Investigations and analyses show that these clandestine cigarettes often display abnormally high levels of tar, nicotine and heavy metals (lead, cadmium and others). Organic contaminants have also been detected: traces of urine or mould have been found on the tobacco. The absence of traceability means the consumer has no idea what they are inhaling. This black market also makes tobacco easier for minors to obtain: cheap and widely available, these counterfeit products can fall into the wrong hands. The social cost is high: more smokers exposed, more tobacco-related illness, and therefore an additional burden on the health system.

The rise of these clandestine factories is also a warning about the strengthening of organised crime. Highly lucrative tobacco trafficking attracts criminal networks already specialising in drugs or money laundering. Government officials point out that tobacco counterfeiting follows the same logic as drug trafficking (transnational organisation, use of clandestine channels, violence and so on). The enormous gains, for example several million in profit in a few months, whet the appetite of criminal organisations, which use this trade to diversify their illegal activities.

The criminal networks behind the counterfeiting

Investigations following the raids confirm that organised international networks are involved in these factories. There are strong links with Eastern European criminal groups: Ukrainian, Moldovan, Serbian, Armenian. The expertise and the technical capital often come from those countries, where tobacco counterfeiting has been established for years. The Rouen factory mentioned above, for instance, mainly employed Moldovan nationals. The typical profile of an operation is: “a large initial investment, several foreign workers, machine tools imported from the East, and tobacco from a third country”. After the invasion of Ukraine, many networks fell back on other states, and clandestine factories appeared in Belgium and the Netherlands before reaching France.

Several indicators point to this link with criminal channels already known to the authorities:

• Nationalities involved: in most French cases, the people arrested are foreign nationals (Moldovan, Romanian, Armenian, Spanish, Colombian and so on). Sometimes organised families are involved (an investigation near Roubaix identified a Spanish-Colombian family network, with two women and one man placed under investigation).
• Logistical organisation: these networks use transnational channels similar to those of the drug trade (convoys, couriers, fleets of lorries). Customs officers have repeatedly seized suspect loads coming directly from the borders (on the A39 or the A1 in 2024, for example, where lorries from the East were checked and found to be carrying tobacco and equipment).
• Involvement of serious crime: cigarette traffickers often belong to cartels or criminal organisations already operating in other illegal sectors. The head of the financial judicial investigation service pointed out that “the manufacturing cost is one euro per pack, the rest is margin”, which encourages groups specialising in drugs or weapons to move into tobacco. Alliances have been noted, for example, between Balkan networks and urban retailers to shift millions of packs.

Traffickers are also adapting their targets and their products: while it was once thought that rolled cigarettes (made by individuals with loose tobacco) were preferred, counterfeit manufactured cigarettes (Marlboro, L&M, Winston packs) are now everywhere. These well-known brands bring in even higher profits. According to Europol, price differences between EU countries (a pack costing almost twice as much in France as in Poland, for example) create enormous opportunities for these criminal networks, which are physically moving closer to the large western markets. In short, behind the clandestine French factories lie transnational criminal organisations, using tobacco fraud to fill their coffers and extend their influence.

How the French authorities are responding

Faced with this threat, the public authorities are acting in several ways. First, French customs have been given greater resources. Targeted operations are regularly carried out on the roads, in ports and online. In 2023-2025, a national “Tobacco Plan” was launched by the government to coordinate action against smuggling. The plan includes the deployment of mobile customs teams, cooperation with the gendarmerie and the criminal investigation police, and a modernised set of enforcement powers. Customs can now, for example, obtain digital injunctions allowing sellers of illicit tobacco on online sites to be delisted within a few hours.

The law enforcement services (national gendarmerie, police, specialist units) work together to dismantle the factories and their supply chains. After each discovery, prosecutors open investigations within the anti-crime jurisdictions (Junalco, JIRS), involving the central office against itinerant crime (OCLDI), the financial judicial investigation service (SEJF) and sometimes the national anti-fraud office. After the raid near Rouen, for instance, the case was transferred to the national organised crime jurisdiction (Junalco) in 2023. Arrests lead to police custody and prosecution for “possession as part of an organised gang of counterfeit products and importation of smuggled manufactured tobacco”. These proceedings reflect a determination to treat tobacco trafficking as a major form of organised crime.

The legislature and the government are also taking measures. In early 2024, the minister for public accounts announced a new national anti-counterfeiting plan (2024-2026) with particular attention to tobacco. That plan (fairly general in scope) provides for tougher enforcement on the internet and social media, notably through the digital injunction tool mentioned above. In addition, a bill tabled in the National Assembly (December 2025) aims to align penalties for tobacco trafficking with those for narcotics: the intention is to remove the “windfall” effect traffickers enjoy, by increasing sentences for organised smuggling networks. The bill draws on the alarming findings of the official TaFE report: seven clandestine factories dismantled between 2022 and 2025 in France, some of them producing up to 2 million cigarettes a day.

European cooperation is also growing. Cross-border operations are increasing thanks to Europol and the Belgian, Dutch and German authorities. Investigations are being carried out into supply routes and international networks. Tobacco manufacturers criticise a lack of European coordination on tax policy and call on states to harmonise prices (to reduce the tax differences that encourage trafficking). Meanwhile, trade organisations (the manufacturers’ union, the tobacconists’ confederation) are stepping up awareness campaigns aimed at the public and at retailers.

How things may develop

The picture is a worrying one: the threat from clandestine factories appears to be growing. Experts consider that tobacco counterfeiting will continue to grow as long as high margins remain. The networks have shown their ability to adapt: if pressure becomes too strong in France, other neighbouring countries (Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom) could become their new production centres. The authorities are therefore counting on a continuing increase in resources (more checks, more mobile units, a larger budget for customs) and on ever closer cooperation at European level. On the legal front, the trend is towards tougher penalties and the development of rapid tools to target the internet market.

Preventive measures could also play a part: reducing tobacco price differences in Europe (through tax harmonisation or a cap on duty-free purchases) would limit the appeal of smuggling. Better information for consumers about the health and criminal risks linked to illicit tobacco can also reduce demand at source. Finally, customs are likely to step up their international collaborations (with OLAF and Interpol) to dismantle networks further upstream.

In short, the fight against clandestine cigarette factories is now at the heart of the priorities of the French security services. The authorities are putting new action plans in place and calling for a coordinated response in Europe. The battle is far from won, since these traffickers operate in complete secrecy and have substantial resources. But the growing number of raids and the increase in resources suggest that the phenomenon is no longer invisible. To protect the legal economy, public health and public order, pressure will have to be maintained on every front: enforcement, legislation and prevention.

Sources: TF1 info, Revuedestabacs, Assemblee-nationale, Presse.economie.gouv