Illegal tobacco sales targeted during London Trading Standards Week

Posted on 12th November 20217th December 2022 by LTS Communications

Haringey Council discovered illegal tobacco with a value of over £1,500 – following an operation linked with London Trading Standards Week.

Trading Standards teams from the council carried out a range of enforcement actions throughout the week, including test purchases to catch out shopkeepers illegally selling tobacco products to children.

Sniffer dogs also played a part in finding illegal tobacco for sale in licensed premises.

Thanks to their keen noses, the team found and confiscated a safe containing illegal tobacco products from a shop in Wood Green.

Inside 4,580 cigarettes and just over 1kg of hand rolling tobacco was discovered – with a duty value of £1,612.29

This activity took place under Operation CeCe which is a National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC to tackle illegal tobacco.

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Newham Council’s Trading Standards teamed up with specialist detection dogs to track down and seize illegal tobacco worth £25,000. The crackdown was part of Operation CeCe, a national campaign that focuses on joint working between Trading Standards and HM Revenue and Customs. The investigations remain ongoing and the seized products will now be fully assessed
-> Continue reading £25,000 of illegal tobacco seized in Newham crackdown

Illegal tobacco worth more than £28,000 has been seized during a two-day raid. Officers from Tower Hamlet Council’s Trading Standards team were joined by sniffer dogs Pippa and Rex to uncover the counterfeit and illicit tobacco from containers and shops in the borough. The biggest haul was found in a container near to Chrisp Street
-> Continue reading More than 60,000 illegal cigarettes seized during Tower Hamlet raid

Newham Council’s Trading Standards teamed up with specialist detection dogs to track down and seize illegal tobacco worth over £162,000 at the weekend. 250,000 cigarettes have been taken off the streets, as well as 30kg of hand-rolling tobacco which had a value of £9,000. The illegal tobacco haul was uncovered when officers visited a
-> Continue reading £162,000 of illegal tobacco seized in Newham crackdown

A haul of illegal tobacco, totalling over 250,000 cigarettes, was unearthed by detection dogs in Croydon. Officers from Croydon Trading Standards, working with HMRC as part of Operation Ce Ce, targeted the location in the borough thanks to the use of intelligence – and the super-sniffers from BWY K9. The dog, called Yo-Yo, signalled the
-> Continue reading Over 250,000 illegal Croydon cigarettes seized

Magistrates have ordered an Enfield business and its director to pay £14,140 in fines and costs after Council officers seized thousands of illicit cigarettes. Enfield Council’s Trading Standards team visited Carpathina European Food on Bowes Road, N11 with partner organisations and sniffer dogs as part of a crackdown on illegal tobacco sales. The team had
-> Continue reading Illicit cigarettes cost business more than £14,000

Croydon Council trading standards and HM Revenue and Customs teamed up with specialist detection dogs to track down and seize illegal tobacco worth over £300,000 from a Croydon storage unit. More than 216,000 illegal cigarettes and 350 kilograms of hand-rolling tobacco were uncovered when officers swooped a self-storage unit in the north of the borough
-> Continue reading £300,000 of illegal tobacco seized

More than five million illegal cigarettes have been seized from local retail outlets in the first six months of the year as part of Operation CeCe, a joint initiative between National Trading Standards and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to tackle the illegal tobacco trade. The haul of illicit products also includes more than 1,700kg
-> Continue reading Millions of illegal tobacco products seized as part of crackdown on illicit tobacco trade

Raids across London have seen almost 300,000 illegal cigarettes and 90kg of hand rolling tobacco seized in recent months. London Trading Standards (LTS) has been leading ‘Operation CeCe’ to crack down on the illicit trade. In the last four months officers have confiscated tobacco products with a market value of £226,800 – a street value
-> Continue reading Operation Ce Ce sees successful seizures of illegal tobacco across London

A Trading Standards crackdown on illegal tobacco has found 5,000 illegal cigarettes concealed in a shop toilet. As part of a national project funded by National Trading Standards and the HMRC, officers conducted quick fire unannounced inspections at retailers across Merton, Richmond and Wandsworth. A specialist sniffer dog was used to hunt out illegal tobacco
-> Continue reading Merton Council cracks down on illegal tobacco sales