An organised crime group running a chain of high-street convenience stores as a front for large-scale illicit tobacco sales has been dismantled following a eight-year-old long probe by Trading Standards in the West Midlands.
European Food Express, a minimart in Dudley, was found to be at the centre of an operation selling counterfeit and non-duty-paid cigarettes smuggled into the UK from China and Turkey. Investigators estimate the store alone was generating at least £500 a day in illegal cigarette sales, with total fake tobacco sales exceeding £700,000.
The investigation was led by Dudley Council Trading Standards, whose officers pursued the case for eight years after receiving intelligence about fake cigarettes being sold across minimarts in Dudley and Birmingham. The probe uncovered a sophisticated network involving hidden compartments, false ownership structures and industrial storage units used to distribute illicit stock.
The de facto owner of the chain, Sywash Mashkhaty, was sentenced last year at Wolverhampton Crown Court to four years and nine months in prison, alongside four co-conspirators. The court heard that Mashkhaty led a group that concealed cigarettes in floors, walls and behind counters, creating new hiding places after each enforcement visit.
During repeated raids between 2016 and 2018, Trading Standards officers uncovered tens of thousands of counterfeit and illicit cigarettes, including fake versions of popular UK brands and so-called “bogus” brands such as Minsk and Pect, sold for as little as £2–£3 a pack. Some products carried no UK duty, while others failed basic safety standards.
Company records showed frequent changes to the registered leaseholder, utility accounts and licences for European Food Express, a tactic investigators say is commonly used to frustrate enforcement. Despite claims that the business had been sold, officers established that Mashkhaty remained in control, with electricity bills and food licences in his name.
The wider operation extended beyond Dudley. In 2019, enforcement teams identified industrial units in Birmingham and Oldbury linked to the group, seizing more than 86,000 non-duty-paid cigarettes. Investigators believe total profits from the network may have run into the millions, funding luxury vehicles, property investments and other assets.
Kuldeep Maan, who leads the trading standards team at Dudley council in the West Midlands, told Sunday Times, “It happens all around the country with these shops.
“As soon as there is enforcement action on the shop, they change around ownership to confuse trading standards and the police about who is responsible for the business.”
“In terms of getting up the hierarchy of an organised crime group I think we hit the top with Mashkhaty,” Maan said.
Mashkhaty and one of his co-defendants may face deportation on release from prison. Trading Standards and police investigations into associated business interests are ongoing.