Northumbria police seizes massive haul of illegal tobacco from multiple premises

More than 330,000 illegal cigarettes have been seized by Northumbria Police last week from multiple premises.

According to local reports, officers from the force’s Neighbourhood Policing Teams in Byker and Benwell recovered £200,000 worth of suspected illegal cigarettes, 132kgs of hand rolling tobacco and a quantity of cash from three separate premises.

On Thursday (February 10), a haul of 180,000 cigarettes were seized after vigilant officers patrolling Shields Road in Byker saw suspicious behaviour near one of the shops. 

On Friday (February 11), a self-storage unit linked to a Newcastle-based trader was also searched with the help of a sniffer dog and 130,000 cigarettes and 128kg of hand-rolling tobacco was seized.

The recoveries followed on from a visit earlier in the week that saw officers and Trading Standards join forces to carry out a series of checks. During one visit in the Benwell area, 2000 packs of around 40,000 suspected counterfeit cigarettes were seized along with five kilograms of tobacco.

Investigations into all cases currently remain ongoing.

Following the seizures, Chief Inspector Dave Wheeler from Northumbria Police has warned of the dangers of buying counterfeit goods.

He said: “Counterfeit cigarettes pose a real danger to people as they are not produced by licensed companies and contain unknown quantities of chemicals.

People might think that it’s OK to buy them and take that risk, but what they don’t see is that the money used from the sale of these items is often used to fund organised crime and further illicit activity.

“As a Force, we are committed to tackling serious and organised crime, as part of Operation Sentinel, and will continue to pursue those involved in illegal activities, as well as protecting the public from the potential harmful effects of this type of criminality.”