Mystery surrounds ‘customs’ raid

CUSTOMS denies it was responsible for a raid targeting businessmen on the TGV Paris-Geneva line.

Around 20 alleged customs officers boarded the train at Bellegarde last month targeting passengers reported to “look like” bankers and tax experts, confiscating mobile phones and sim cards to obtain phone numbers according to newspapers La Tribune de Genève and Les Échos.

Passengers feared they were being targeted by customs looking into various fraud claims and non-declared capital abroad.

However, according to Le Figaro, customs deny being responsible for the operation.

Customs’ head of communication Jean-Roald Lhermitte said: “Following the reports in La Tribune de Genève and Les Échos, I launched an immediate internal administrative inquiry as the number of officers and the methods described did not correspond to normal practice. We are certain that it is not customs who carried out these checks.”

He added that squads of customs officers boarding trains would be smaller - around four to 10.