French Code of Criminal Procedure
In forceI.-Customs officers and tax officials not specially designated pursuant to Articles 28-1 and 28-2, who have passed a training course culminating in an examination certifying their suitability to carry out the tasks entrusted to them by law and who have been specially designated by order of the Minister of Justice and the Minister responsible for the budget may, regardless of the administration to which they belong, carry out the tasks defined in article 20 in judicial investigations carried out by customs officers or tax officials pursuant to I of articles 28-1 or 28-2. They participate in these investigations on the basis of the requisition or letter rogatory provided for in the first paragraph of the same I. They are referred to as "financial judicial police officers".
To carry out their duties, these officers have jurisdiction throughout France.
The terms of application of this I shall be determined by decree in the Council of State.
II.-To carry out the duties mentioned in I, financial police officers have the same prerogatives and the same obligations as those attributed to judicial police officers, including when these prerogatives and obligations are entrusted to specially designated police or gendarmerie services or units.
They are authorised to declare as their domicile the address of the head office of the department to which they report.
III.-In order to carry out the duties referred to in I, the financial judicial police officers are placed under the direction of the public prosecutor, under the supervision of the public prosecutor and under the control of the investigating chamber at the seat of their office, under the conditions set out in articles 224 to 230.
IV.-The financial judicial police officers are placed under the administrative direction of a magistrate of the judiciary, in accordance with the procedures laid down by decree in the Council of State.
V.-The judicial financial police officers may not, on pain of nullity, exercise any powers or perform any acts other than those provided for in this code for the performance of the duties mentioned in I of this article.
VI.-Financial judicial police officers may not carry out their judicial police duties in respect of acts for which they participated in an inspection procedure prior to being appointed in this capacity. They may not, even after their appointment has come to an end, take part in a control procedure in respect of acts for which they had exercised their powers.
V.-Financial judicial police officers may not exercise their judicial police duties in respect of acts for which they took part in a control procedure before being appointed as such.
