Police seize huge six-figure amount of illegal tobacco products

Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of illegal cigarettes and e-cigarettes have been seized from south Devon. A joint operation carried out by Trading Standards and Devon and Cornwall Police has uncovered more than 18,000 illegal tobacco products at a site in the South Hams countryside.

2,000 illegal e-cigarettes were seized by police. Devon and Cornwall Police said the total amount recovered was worth around £166,000. Suspected counterfeit goods, tax-free paid tobacco products and non-British standard e-cigarettes, which are illegal to sell, were also seized.

Inspector Ben Shardlow, who leads South Hams' Neighborhood Policing Team, said: “These illegal products have not gone through regulated safety testing or quality control procedures, unlike legal products sold in the UK. This means that we knows what's inside them. This aggressive warrant enforcement shows a great partnership at work, resulting in the identification of large quantities of illegal merchandise. There is no doubt that we were able to remove a large amount of illegal goods from the streets and from circulation.”

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He continued: “We would like the public to report concerns so that we can continue to deter illegal and criminal activity, as we have done in South Hams. Your reports and information will have a huge impact on our investigations. influence.”

Cllr Rufus Gilbert, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Trading Standards, said: “Removing illicit tobacco and e-cigarettes from the market is a top priority for us and this was another successful operation. ” he added. Because the service uses sniffer dogs during its operations, the dogs have the ability to sniff out small amounts of cigarettes that are invisible to the naked eye, whether hidden anywhere, such as in storage containers or on retail premises.

“Retail stores that sell counterfeit and illegal cigarettes are big business, and these stores can hurt the profits of other local general stores trying to operate legally in difficult economic times. This cigarette is sold at pocket money prices by criminals who have no interest in asking for proof of age, thus encouraging children and young people to smoke.

“Illegal tobacco products pose a real health risk even more than legal cigarettes because they are not subjected to the same quality control tests and are often found to contain high levels of contaminants.”