French Customs Code
In forceI. - 1. With the prior agreement of the Minister for Justice and the consent of the other Member State(s) concerned, the public prosecutor may authorise, for the purposes of a customs procedure, the creation of a special joint investigation team :
- either when complex investigations involving the mobilisation of significant resources and involving other Member States need to be carried out ;
- or where several Member States are conducting investigations into offences requiring coordinated and concerted action between the Member States concerned.
Authorisation is given for a fixed, renewable period by the Public Prosecutor of the judicial court in whose jurisdiction the joint special investigation team is likely to start operating or by the Public Prosecutor to whom the matter has been referred pursuant toArticle 706-76 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The public prosecutor is kept regularly informed of the progress of operations carried out by the joint special investigation team. He may terminate the joint special investigation team that he has authorised at any time.
2. Foreign officers seconded by another Member State to a special joint investigation team, within the limits of the powers attaching to their status, may, under the direction of French customs officers, have the following duties, where applicable, throughout national territory:
a) To ascertain any Customs offence, to draw up a report, if necessary in the form provided for by the law of their State;
b) Receiving statements made to them by any person able to provide information on the facts in question, if necessary in the form provided for by the law of their State;
c) To assist French customs officers in the performance of their duties;
d) Carry out surveillance and, if they are specially authorised to do so, infiltration, under the conditions set out in article 67 bis of the present Code, without it being necessary to apply the second and fourth paragraphs of VIII of the same article.
Foreign officers seconded to a joint special investigation team may carry out these tasks, subject to the consent of the Member State that seconded them.
Such officers shall only intervene in operations for which they have been designated. None of the powers of the French customs officer in charge of the team may be delegated to them.
An original copy of the reports drawn up by them, which must be drafted or translated into French, shall be added to the French proceedings.
II - At the request of the competent authorities of the other Member State(s) concerned, French customs officers are authorised to take part in the activities of a joint special investigation team based in another Member State.
Within the framework of the joint special investigation team, French customs officers seconded to a joint special investigation team may carry out operations prescribed by the team leader throughout the territory of the State in which they are working, within the limits of the powers granted to them by this Code.
Their tasks shall be defined by the authority of the Member State competent to lead the joint special investigation team in whose territory the team is operating.
They may receive reports and establish offences in the manner provided for by this Code, subject to the agreement of the Member State in which they are operating.
III - I and II are applicable to requests for cooperation between the French customs authorities and those of other States party to any convention containing stipulations similar to those of the convention of 18 December 1997 on mutual assistance and cooperation between customs administrations.
