The subject intrigues, shocks and alarms: every year, millions of cigarettes are smuggled between Andorra and France. The result? In 2024, official sales fell by 6-8%, despite constant consumption. Explanation: it’s not prevention that’s winning the day, but smuggling that’s flourishing, particularly towards submission, via the Principality.
📉 Historic drop in official sales: an alarming indicator
Customs statistics are clear: sales of regulated cigarettes in France fell by 6-8% in 2024. Behind these figures lies not a massive cessation of smoking, but a massive exodus to the black market. The less people smoke legally, the more the networks flourish, especially in the areas affected by Andorra and Luxembourg.
🛤️ Andorra: gateway to massive smuggling
- Approximately 850 million cigarettes are shipped from Andorra to France every year, while local consumption is limited to 120 million– a colossal surplus.
- In October 2024, customs seized nearly 16,000 packages, hidden in natural cavities around Pas-de-la-Case, representing more than €62,500 worth of merchandise.
- In 2023 alone, 34,527 cartridges were intercepted, compared with 11,500 the previous year, an increase of almost 200%.
This massive traffic relies on the considerable tax gap with France, making the Principality very attractive to smugglers.
🏙️ Street hawkers and grocery stores: traffic becoming commonplace in the city
Today, in many cities and neighborhoods, the fluke has become commonplace:
- On street corners, in parking lots, on buses or in building lobbies, untraceable packets are sold at knock-down prices.
- Grocery stores sell duty-free tobacco illegally, with regular customers seeing no risk.
These informal channels dry up tobacconists’ revenues, while tarnishing health safety: uncontrolled products, toxic risks, total absence of guarantees.
💶 Consequences for the economy and society
- Estimated tax loss of between 3 and 7 billion euros per year.
- Tobacconists in difficulty, forced to lower their prices or even close up store.
- Increased health risk: counterfeit tobacco with no health guarantee.
- Strengthening of criminal networks, ready to do anything to keep the circuit going.
⚙️ Organized networks at the cutting edge
Today, it’s no longer a one-off smuggling operation:
- Precise organization between border networks (Andorra-France),
- Sales via unauthorized grocery stores, WhatsApp groups, underground carpools,
- Occasional use of drones to locate deposition points in the field,
- Containers hidden under the guise of legitimate transport: buses, trucks, postal parcels, packages.
- Sophisticated avoidance systems put in place by organized crime professionals.
🛡️ The authorities’ response: drones, scanners, sanctions
The government has put in place a veritable arsenal to stem this haemorrhage:
- Joint patrols with the Guardia Civil,
- 3 drones deployed to map traffic flows along the RN20 and in the mountains,
- Portable scanners, more detector dogs (+20%),
- Postal, bus and train controls to block traffic before entering France,
- Tougher penalties: fines, administrative closures, stiffer criminal penalties.
🚨 Networks that threaten the local fabric
- Tobacconists are paying a high price for unlabelled and unregulated products.
- Customers buy cheaper, but expose themselves to dangerous products.
- The periphery of borders becomes fertile ground for organized crime: smuggling, money laundering, parallel networks.
🚭 What concrete solution can be found to stop financing this traffic?
The most radical response is tostop smoking, officially, with professional support. That’s where MyLaserTabac comes in.
Our natural method is based on laser ear reflexologya painless, drug-free protocol:
- A laser stimulates reflex points linked to addiction, stress and craving,
- Tangible results from the very first session: rapid reduction in dependency,
- Improved sleep, mood and respiratory health,
- 90% success rate, no substitutes, no side effects.
✅ The right choice: health, freedom and support for legal channels
- When you stop, you rebuild your health,
- You are putting an end to a dubious purchase that fed criminal networks,
- You support the French economy, the jobs of tobacconists and public regulation.
🔎 Want to know more?
Visit mylasertabac.com to discover :
- How our laser ear reflexology protocol works,
- Where to find a MyLaserTabac center near you,
- Testimonials from those who have chosen to take back control of their lives.
Because every tax-free package is a problem for the future. And you can make a difference, simply by choosing a different path.
