Half a million pounds worth of illegal tobacco has been seized from a storage facility in Walsall, West Midlands, as part of a crackdown on the illicit tobacco trade.
Walsall Council Trading Standards teamed up with West Midlands Police and a specialist search dog team as part of Operation Shadow.
Sniffer dogs Griff, Cooper and Bran detected tobacco scent in a unit, prompting Trading Standards to obtain keys for access.
Upon entering, the team discovered 23 bin liners containing over 500kg of processed tobacco, 1,000 packets of hand rolling tobacco, 3,000 cigarettes and counterfeit duty stamps and packaging.
These goods would have been later packaged at an illegal tobacco factory ready to be distributed across the country, Trading Standards said.
“Our Trading Standards and Police teams take illicit tobacco very seriously and we will use every enforcement technique at our disposal to disrupt this type of activity from happening within our borough.,” said Councillor Garry Perry, leader of Walsall Council.
He warned of the “serious consequences” of illegal tobacco and its links to “organised criminal activity including human trafficking, drugs and terrorism”.
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