French police say they suspect operatives acting under the direction of a foreign intelligence service, likely Russian, placed pig heads outside nine mosques in and around Paris on Monday night.
Investigators identified two foreign nationals as the main suspects and said the pair drove a Serbian-registered car, used a Croatian mobile phone and crossed into Belgium in the early hours of Tuesday. The heads were discovered on Tuesday morning at mosques in central Paris and in surrounding suburbs, prompting widespread condemnation.
Police said a Normandy farmer told them he had sold "about 10" pig heads to two men who drove a Serbian-registered car. CCTV footage obtained by French broadcaster BFMTV shows a man wearing a white T-shirt, cap and surgical mask placing a pig's head outside a mosque in the southwest suburb of Malakoff, photographing it and leaving with a rucksack. Around the same time, another person was filmed performing the same action outside a mosque in the eastern suburb of Montreuil.
Tracing of the Croatian mobile phone allegedly used in the operation showed the car crossing into Belgium a few hours after the placements, police said. Investigators noted that the perpetrators stopped to photograph their actions — a practice that has appeared in other recent provocations and is interpreted by authorities as both proof of completion for handlers and material for subsequent social media campaigns.
The case has striking parallels to several incidents over the past year that French authorities say bear the hallmarks of foreign influence operations. In October 2023, Stars of David were daubed on Paris walls in an affair in which police identified a Moldovan connection. In May 2024, red handprints were painted on the city's Holocaust memorial; prosecutors in that case said it appeared "to be an attempt to destabilise France orchestrated by Russian intelligence," and four Bulgarians are due to stand trial in October.
Other episodes this year include stencilled images of coffins on Paris walls and the placement of five coffins draped in French flags in front of the Eiffel Tower with a label referring to "French dead in Ukraine." In those cases, police have also identified suspects of Moldovan origin. French intelligence officials have described a pattern in which foreign services exploit proxies in neighbouring countries to carry out "ad hoc tasks" that aim to inflame divisions inside France.
The French cyber and communications watchdog Viginum, which monitors social media for foreign influence activity, has reported evidence of accounts linked to Russia amplifying disinformation related to the red hands affair, including the use of thousands of fake accounts on X. French authorities have previously named both Russia and Iran as states that seek to provoke dissension in France through such "dirty tricks."
Prosecutors and intelligence officials are investigating whether the latest incident was similarly coordinated and whether intermediaries based outside Russia paid or recruited the perpetrators. Authorities have opened inquiries to identify any additional individuals involved and to determine how materials and logistics were arranged.
Paris and national officials condemned the actions when the pig heads were reported, and local Muslim leaders described the placements as a deliberate provocation that targeted religious communities. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
Investigations are ongoing. French police said they are following multiple leads, including questions about the role of the vehicles, mobile communications metadata and purchases tied to the pig heads. The probe will also examine any links between this episode and previous acts authorities believe were designed to polarise opinion and destabilise public order in France.
