Ever wondered why your rolex was only 25 euros, and your Nike trainers a mere 30 euros over the border?

Fermé pour Contrefaçons

Well, if you’ve noticed quite a few shops closed down over the past few months in Le Perthus/La Jonquera, around 50 in all, it’s because they were ‘fermés pour contrefaçons’ – closed for selling counterfeit goods, and are only just being allowed to reopen now, many months later.

At the end of a 3 year operation, police raided shops, supermarkets  and warehouses  in 2016, seizing over 8 million euros  of fake goods, including handbags, watches, sunglasses and jewellery, and identifying as much a 9 million euros in related money laundering.

Much of it was stashed away, just like in the movies, behind hidden walls and in secret compartments!

Some of the confiscated goods were manufactured in Spain, but much of it was  imported from Portugal, China and Turkey.