Mass police checks in Dordogne see hundreds of drivers stopped
Rise in burglaries and road deaths leads to three-hour operation at motorway A89 toll barrier
A total of 400 vehicles were checked, with 40 offences recorded, at the Mussidan toll barrier on the A89 in Dordogne
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A major police operation took place on the A89 motorway in Dordogne last week as part of a wider push against rising road offences, drug trafficking and a marked increase in burglaries.
The three-hour operation involved 70 officers, including 55 gendarmes, teams from customs, URSSAF and environmental officers and took place on Wednesday November 12 at the Mussidan toll barrier.
A total of 400 vehicles were checked, with 40 offences recorded. These included three cases of driving under the influence of drugs, one combining alcohol and drugs, and two refusals to comply with testing.
One driver was taken into custody. Officers also seized 170g of narcotics and a bag of contraband tobacco. Several road-safety violations were also reported.
Officials said the operation served both enforcement and prevention objectives.
Dordogne has recorded 30 road deaths so far in 2025, prompting a series of reinforced controls on major routes.
A snapshot of road users
The timing of the checks, coinciding with morning work-related traffic, was designed to capture a “snapshot” of mobility patterns on the axis and to collect intelligence on repeat journeys.
Beyond road safety, the rise in burglaries in the department this year was a factor in deciding the scale of the operation.
Last week, five people were arrested on suspicion of carrying out about 25 burglaries and vehicle thefts across the area. They are due to appear in court in December.
Prefect Marie Aubert told France Bleu that the perpetrators often move between departments on the motorway, and that licence-plate data can help identify vehicles linked to serial offending.
Gendarmerie commanders said such large-scale filtering operations are an opportunity to gather information that may not immediately resolve ongoing cases but can provide leads when cross-checked with past alerts, sightings or partial plate numbers.
Colonel Jérémy Lauraire, head of the Dordogne gendarmerie, said officers operate on the principle that “everything passes through the tolls”, making motorway checkpoints an essential tool for disrupting illicit activity.
Police operation near Bergerac
A separate operation took place on November 14 on several major routes around Bergerac, involving the national gendarmerie, the municipal police and Deputy Prefect Frédéric Carre.
Officers checked 181 vehicles and recorded 13 violations, including three non-compliant technical inspections, three insurance deficiencies, two speeding offences, one use of a phone while driving, two vehicles with flat tyres and one case of driving under the influence of drugs.
The prefecture said these checks form part of its Plan d’action départemental pour restaurer la sécurité du quotidien, or ‘plan to restore everyday safety’, which seeks to strengthen road safety and tackle everyday crime on the department’s road network.
The ongoing plan will result in further police operations in the department.
Officials said further road checks are likely as part of a broader strategy to contain the rise in crime and improve road safety across Dordogne’s main transport corridors.
