It is a text of barely two lines, promulgated by a decree of the government « Queuille I”, December 8, 1948. Article 60 of the Customs Code has since governed searches of vehicles and people. “For the application of the provisions of this code and with a view to the search for fraud, customs officers may proceed to the inspection of goods and means of transport and that of persons”dit-il in extenso.
In recent weeks, the reference to this brief article has been invited, as if by breaking and entering, in the pleadings of “narcotics” files linked to customs seizures. Since this text, considered the “cornerstone” of the action of customs officers, was declared unconstitutional on September 22, 2022, it has plunged the procedures into unprecedented legal uncertainty. By betting on the obsolescence of the legal framework for excavations, the defenders of the alleged traffickers have obtained several releases, even outright cancellations of seizures.
This national imbroglio has as its starting point the Vierzon Nord toll booth, on the A20 motorway. It was there that Cher customs officers discovered, on February 10, 2020, 47,000 euros in cash hidden in the padding of the right front door of a Peugeot – denominations of 20 and 50 euros distributed in five heat-sealed packets covered of cellophane. On March 18, 2022, during the trial of the conveyor before the Bourges court, Me Eugène Bangoura, his lawyer, decides to go all out: he asks a priority question of constitutionality (QPC), calling into question the merits of article 60 of the customs code.
The argument of the lawyer berruyer maintains that the 1948 article, which leaves wide latitude for customs “visits”, is no longer adapted to today’s legal order. ” This particularly lapidary text is detrimental to individual freedoms and totally detached from the legal guarantees of common law governing police or gendarmerie checks. precise Me Bangoura. The trial of his client, on the merits, is then postponed. But the QPC is transmitted to the Constitutional Council.
From “stunned” to “anger”
Rue Montpensier decides, in a decision published on September 22, 2022. Article 60, declared ” inconstitutionnel », is repealed on the spot. The comment justifies that“by not specifying sufficiently the framework applicable to the conduct of these operations (…) the legislator has not ensured a balanced reconciliation between, on the one hand, the search for the perpetrators of the offense and, on the other hand, the freedom to come and go and the right to respect for private life”.
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