Thousands of illicit cigarettes seized from shops in North Staffs

Illicit tobacco worth £4,000 has been seized recently by trading standards officers following raids at three shops in North Staffordshire.

As per local reports, the teams from Staffordshire County Council, working with police licensing and immigration officers, made the seizures of 4,580 illegal cigarettes, 2.15 kg of illegal hand rolling tobacco and 135 illegal disposable vape products from independent retailers in Newcastle and Kidsgrove.

The raid was part of an ongoing operation to combat the sale and supply of illegal tobacco.

Officers were supported by specially trained search dogs from Wagtail UK in the raids undertaken as part of Operation CeCe, a National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC to tackle illegal tobacco.

Victoria Wilson, cabinet member with responsibility for trading standards at Staffordshire County Council, said: “The sale of illicit or counterfeit tobacco products is a crime that not only damages local communities and people’s health but also harms legitimate businesses. These latest raids prove that the service will continue to take the necessary action where they know it is going on.

“All tobacco is harmful, but illegal tobacco makes it easier for children to start smoking and get hooked. Sellers also rarely care who they sell to, so I would urge anyone with information about the sale of such products to get in touch with the team.”

In recent years, the county council’s trading standards team has uncovered more than three million illegal cigarettes and almost 200kg of illegal hand rolling tobacco with an estimated street value of £1,026,476.