Officers from Cheshire Police’s Western Protecting Vulnerable People and Exploitation (PVPE) team have seized quantities of counterfeit cigarettes during a retail operation across the Northwich area - with 200,000 illicit products recovered from one shop alone last week.
On 2 April, officers from the Western PVPE team and Northwich Beat Team, with the assistance of local Trading Standards teams, launched Operation Accommodate, a multi-agency investigation targeting retailers believed to be linked to organised immigration crime.
Officers, supported by community partners from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) and specialist detection dogs, visited four retailers in the Northwich Road, Chester Road, Station Road and Market Street areas of Northwich.
At all four, officers found large quantities of illicit tobacco and cigarettes concealed in a number of sophisticated hiding places out of view from the public. More than 200,000 cigarettes were recovered from an adjoining property linked to the Station Road retailer alone.
As a result, closure orders were served on the stores on Market Street and Station Road. The property linked to the Station Road retailer was also served with a prohibition notice by CFRS colleagues.
A 27-year-old man was also arrested at the Station Road retailer on suspicion of money laundering. He has since been released under investigation.
Detective Sergeant Paul Huxley, of the Western PVPE team, said: “Operation Accommodate has recovered well over 200,000 fake cigarettes from four stores, one of the largest seizures in the Cheshire West area to date, which will have considerably disrupted the efforts of those looking to benefit from criminal activity.
“We often find links between the sale of illicit and counterfeit goods and the exploitation of vulnerable people under modern slavery offences. It’s for this reason, paired with the impact the distribution of illicit goods has on honest, law-abiding retailers, that our officers conduct operations such as this so regularly across the county.
“The policing presence throughout the day was also highly impactful, with members of the public engaging with our officers during the deployment and discussing how the sale of fake cigarettes and tobacco is a significant issue in their local areas.”
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