Illegal cigarettes, fake vapes seized from Walsall shops

A huge haul of illegal cigarettes, hand rolling tobacco and fake disposable vapes were seized during recent raids on shops in Walsall.

According to local reports, Walsall Trading Standards, West Midlands Police and a specialist search dog found more than 12,000 illegal cigarettes, 2kg of hand rolling tobacco and 76 disposable vapes during a series of raids on Tuesday (14). Some of the vapes contained 6,000 puffs when the legal limit is about 600.

The shops were visited by Trading Standards and the police after receiving intelligence about sale of illegal tobacco at those premises. During a visit to a storage yard, the tobacco dogs sniffed out three containers loaded with thousands of bags of suspected tobacco snuff which was unlabeled.

Two sniffer dogs assisted the team and even identified two sophisticated concealments which were held closed using an electromagnet.

The raids took place under Operation CeCe, which is a National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC to tackle illegal tobacco.

Lord Michael Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said that the trade in illegal tobacco harms local communities and affects honest businesses operating within the law.

“Having removed 21 million illegal cigarettes, 5,800kg of hand rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale, the National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC continues to successfully disrupt this illicit trade.”