| French police are ready to hunt for dirty money “The Paris Regional Action Group (GIR) will be ready to act as early as September 15th. We have brought together into one fist all the leading specialists in the main metropolitan services fighting the washing of “dirty” money,” said Jean-Paul Proust, prefect of the metropolitan police, at the beginning of the summer. He kept his word: GIR-75 was created ahead of schedule!
Why 75? This is the postal code of Paris. The fact is that similar shock troops of the French economic and financial police were previously established in the provinces and managed to prove themselves in the best possible way. One of the tasks of the “super police” is to combat the traffic of “dirty” money coming to the West from the countries of Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
In just the first six months of this year, GIR units in various regions of the Fifth Republic brought to light several networks of the Vietnamese and Chinese “sewing machine mafia,” which created clandestine workshops in basements and abandoned hangars for sewing products under the brands of prestigious companies. They arrested tens of thousands of traffickers in smuggled cigarettes, perfumes and tracksuits. They managed to detain numerous Romanian “beggars”, who in fact represented the richest syndicates exploiting the labor of the disabled and minors, which is strictly prohibited in France...
“The GIR consists of thirty specialists in all fields - from financial and stock exchange experts to veterinarians,” says Divisional Commissioner Vincent Terrnoir, commander of GIR-75. - Don't be surprised! After all, we will have to not only monitor the interbank flows of “dirty” money, but also fight the smuggling of domestic and exotic animals. It is thanks to its competence that our group will become an effective tool in the fight against crime. If we talk in connection with our activities about Russia and other CIS countries, the most routine, typical thing for us is the fight against the supply of “live goods” to France - girls engaged in Europe as fashion models or dancers in night bars, and turned into prostitutes."
In 2002, criminal cases were opened against three hundred managers and directors of companies on charges of using labor that entered France illegally. Divisional Commissioner Terrnoir's team will also be responsible for tracking down the sources that allowed business people to purchase luxury limousines and multimillion-dollar real estate. Thus, last year alone, at least 180 companies came under investigation, the owners of which used their companies to hide “dirty” income and to acquire expensive property: Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars, villas on the Cote d’Azur and huge apartments in Sixteenth arrondissement of Paris. Peter Rozvarin, Paris |
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