in Aubervilliers, textiles launder dirty money

In Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), the textile market is at the origin of numerous legal cases. Hundreds of Chinese wholesalers import, export, buy and resell clothing there. Among them, some are very ingenious in money laundering and tax evasion. Le 20 Heures wanted to speak to wholesalers accused by the courts, without success. That day, customs officers inspected a shipment of textiles from Asia that had passed through Belgium. They suspect these packages contain more clothing than declared.

This technique allows you to pay less taxes. This check reveals nothing, but the customs officers only opened 4 boxes out of 559. It is impossible to check everything. Some packages are suspicious: on an invoice sent to customs, the price of the clothes seems very low. “For example, if I take this line, we have women’s silk pants for 2 euros”, explains Claudio Marciano, from the regional customs directorate – Paris Est. Such an item can cost up to six times more. A way to save thousands of euros to resell these items at full price in Aubervilliers.