Firearms trafficking has exploded in recent years in France. Nearly eight million weapons are circulating throughout the country, three million of them illegally. State agents track, in the utmost secrecy, the most sensitive files to fight against this trafficking. Exceptional reporting.
This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full.
They are the armed wing of an intelligence service and participate in the most sensitive files. These men are neither police officers nor gendarmes, but customs officers. Little known, they cultivate discretion. However, they are on the front line facing organized crime, including arms traffickers. All work for the DNRED, that is to say the National Directorate of Customs Investigation Intelligence.
After months of negotiations, we obtained exceptional filming authorization, because the agents are bound to the greatest secrecy. On their desk: files on money laundering, drug trafficking, sometimes terrorism, and often arms trafficking. Customs seized 1,061 weapons in 2025, an increase of 20%.
That day, they were also preparing an arrest in the south-east of France, “concerning a weapons and explosives case”. “He has three weapons, a few grenades, and we also heard a little bit of mines, but that remains to be determined,” an agent told the troops. Customs officers spotted him thanks to suspicious online purchases. They fear a hidden arsenal and therefore prepare for the worst, such as a shootout. They all remember the death of one of their colleagues in 2015, killed by an arms trafficker with a bullet to the head.
On the big day, before dawn, we found them equipping themselves in a parking lot away from the city. Their heavy equipment is also there to deter any form of resistance from the suspect. “The idea is to give ourselves a chance not to use them and to preserve life in front. We are there to put someone back into the hands of justice, not to eliminate them,” underlines, under anonymity, an agent from the Operational Support Group (GSO) of the National Directorate of Customs Investigation Intelligence.
The column progresses through a residential area, followed by investigating customs officers at the bottom. They climb the two floors without a single word, then install the hydraulic jack. The suspect is handcuffed without resistance. The suspicions are confirmed.
Generally speaking, these collectors are closely monitored because they are sometimes linked to organized crime. “They like to have functional weapons, so they put them back into service and then they sell them to buy more. Finally, it goes on circuits that are not legal circuits and then we lose control of these weapons. It could be used for a robbery, an attack,” analyzes an agent, still anonymous.
Barely finished, the group gets back on the road. On average, he intervenes two to three times a week throughout France, and always in the greatest secrecy.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
