Trading Standards officers and Police Scotland have seized more than 27,000 illicit cigarettes and over 2kg of hand-rolling tobacco during a coordinated crackdown on illegal tobacco sales across North Lanarkshire.
Five premises were visited as part of Operation CeCe, a joint initiative involving Scottish trading standards services and HMRC aimed at tackling the illegal tobacco trade at retail level.
Officers seized 1,366 packets of cigarettes, containing 27,320 cigarettes, along with 47 packs of hand-rolling tobacco weighing 2.35kg.
Councillor Helen Loughran, Convener of North Lanarkshire Council’s Environment and Climate Change Committee, said the illicit tobacco trade “undermines legitimate businesses and supports organised crime”.
She added that the operation had disrupted the supply chain while removing potentially unsafe products from local communities.
“Illicit tobacco, which often contains harmful materials, is sold at reduced prices which encourages more people to smoke,” Loughran said. “Our enforcement action against the criminals who supply them, helps protect local communities.”
The operation comes as new figures obtained by BBC Scotland News highlight significant differences in how Scotland’s councils are using their enforcement powers against illicit tobacco and underage sales.
Under current Scottish rules, Trading Standards can issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) to individuals caught selling tobacco and vapes to underage customers. However, unlike their counterparts in England and Wales, Scottish Trading Standards officers do not have equivalent regulatory powers to use prohibition notices to close businesses involved in such offences.
BBC Scotland submitted Freedom of Information requests to councils across Scotland seeking details of FPNs issued over the past decade. The notices can cover underage sales as well as other breaches, including failures around tobacco displays and age verification.
The figures revealed a wide variation in enforcement activity. North Lanarkshire issued 243 FPNs, while Angus, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, Orkney, Scottish Borders and Shetland each issued fewer than 10.
The BBC report also found that underage vaping has become an increasing focus for Trading Standards over the past decade, with officers frequently using test purchasing involving minors to identify retailers selling nicotine products to underage customers.
David MacKenzie, chair of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and head of Trading Standards at Highland Council, told the BBC that Scotland could strengthen its response by giving Trading Standards officers powers comparable to those available in England and Wales.
He warned that illicit nicotine products were increasingly linked to organised crime.
For legitimate convenience retailers, the issue presents a dual challenge. Illicit products can undercut compliant businesses on price while also creating concerns around organised crime and community safety.
The North Lanarkshire operation demonstrates the scale of products that can be removed through coordinated enforcement, but the wider figures suggest that enforcement remains uneven across Scotland and that Trading Standards officers continue to face limitations in the powers available to them.