France’s La Direction Nationale du Renseignement et des Enquêtes Douanières has issued a press release reporting on raids conducted on a company in Ile-de-France on Thursday and Friday of last week.
The raids by 25 customs officers came after a 10-month investigation. The conduct is stated to amount to exports valued at several 10s of millions of Euros, and to have involved 100s of false customs declarations involving several dozen different exporters each using the services of the raided customs agent.
The company had advertised on the darkweb that it could provide a turnkey sanctions evasion service.
The French authorities acknowledged the help from reports from other European countries and noted the investigation highlighted “statistical anomalies, notably an exponential growth of exports of the company in question to third countries bordering Russia”.