Police raided the premises of FedEx and Air France Cargo at Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) yesterday as part of an investigation into possible radicalisation networks that had been prompted by last Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, according to French media reports.
That the raids had taken place was confirmed by a source at the airport. But no one was immediately available to comment at either FedEx or Air France Cargo nor at the state prefect's office responsible for safety and security at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports.
According to one report, which quoted a source at the state prefect's office, files on 1,500 workers were examined during the raids while warehouses were also targeted and searched.
However, no incriminating evidence was found. “No cause for concern, but there was good reason to verify this,” the source added.
The raids were apparently planned before the seven-hour assault yesterday by police on an apartment in Paris’ northern suburbs, where a group of presumed terrorists were located. This is said to have yielded evidence that attacks were planned at CDG and Paris’ La Defense business district.
The prospect of staff being a security risk has been much to the fore in the aftermath of the Paris attacks with information coming to light that one of the perpetrators had previously worked as a bus driver for Paris' public transit authority, the RATP, over a 15-month period.
Many delivery firms will be hiring several hundreds of drivers, warehouse personnel and dispatchers over the next few weeks in France and elsewhere in the run-up to Christmas.
Commenting on the company's provision for vetting staff, a TNT spokesman told CEP-Research: "TNT screens its employees and sub-contractors in keeping with the laws and regulations in place. We work with a number of tested, pre-selected agencies that we trust as they have an understanding of our business and security requirements.
"Our primary concern is the safety of our employees and the integrity of our operations, in the interest of our customers. Working in constant cooperation with security authorities, we use a wide range of security controls to identify and control the flow of people, vehicles and goods going in and out of our facilities and networks. We appreciate that safety is everyone's responsibility and we make our best effort within our area of competence," he said.
Extra personnel forms part of TNT's plans to handle a greater volume of business during the holiday season.
"The use of temporary staff is needed to ensure we're properly staffed during the period, but will remain limited. Our temporary staffing needs aren't that of B2C delivery firms,” he pointed out.
