Illicit tobacco products worth £660k seized from Bradford

More than 1.6 million cigarettes have been seized from self-storage units in Bradford, stated recent reports.

HM Revenue and Customs officers took a tobacco detection dog to a self-storage site near the city centre on Wednesday (26), where they discovered 1,666,520 cigarettes and almost 50 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco inside two units.

The tobacco products, which are believed to be illicit and worth an estimated £661,229 in unpaid duty, were seized by HMRC and investigations are ongoing. No arrests have been made.The location of the seizure has not been disclosed by HMRC.

Joanne Bagnall, assistant director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said ‘cheap cigarettes’ often funded organised crime and ‘come with a cost’.

“The sale of illegal tobacco will not be tolerated by us or our partner agencies. Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2.3 billion a year,” local reports quoted Bagnall as saying. 

“This is theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders.

“Cheap cigarettes come at a cost, as they often fund organised crime and other illegal activity that causes real harm to our communities. We encourage anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco to report it online.”