The deployment of 18 gendarmes on the border with France served to strengthen security from two different sides. The first, as confirmed by sources from the French embassy, was related to the episodes lived in Ceuta and migration security at the borders; the other, with the reinforcement of the fight against smuggling. The device was extended for two weeks, from September 9 to 24, in an operation that the same sources placed within the normality of the actions that France takes place periodically in the border area.
The troops deployed were gendarmes specialized in mountain actions, a profile specially prepared to intervene in rural and difficult-to-access areas. Despite having a military category, it is cash dependent on the French Ministry of the Interior which usually participate in security devices of these characteristics. His presence made it possible to strengthen the controls at points away from the main roads and expand the surveillance capacity on the mountain roads in the border area.
The agents, despite having a military category, respond to the interior
The deployment also served to support the Welsh customs services in an action that, according to the sources consulted, “demonstrates the constant will to fight against substance trafficking” on the part of the french government. At the same time, the agents contributed to strengthening vigilance against possible movements linked to irregular immigration.
The deployment didn’t happen before a spike in smuggling
Embassy sources wanted to disassociate, however, the arrival of the 18 gendarmes from a possible recent increase in smuggling activity. As they specified, the device it did not respond to any particular spike, but to the will to temporarily reinforce the monitoring of a phenomenon on which France has been operating for a long time through mobile operations and one-off devices.
The agents came from the mobile unit of Chambery and they worked in a coordinated manner with the Arieja gendarmerie. The action is also part of the progressive reinforcement of the French media around the Andorran border. This summer a mobile territorial brigade was already installed at the international station ofI envy her Tor de Querolwithin the surveillance and control mechanisms that the French authorities keep active in the area.
