Over 30,000 vapes, cigarettes and tobacco products seized during joint HMRC, trading standards and immigration operation
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Officers from the Constabulary’s Foreign National Offender (FNO) Unit and Protecting Vulnerable People Exploitation Teams (PVPE) joined immigration, HMRC and Trading Standards colleagues in targeting stores across Warrington linked to immigration crime and the sale of illegal tobacco, vapes and cigarettes.
On Thursday 2 October, officers from the FNO unit working alongside their colleagues from the PVPE team, were deployed across Warrington under Operation Machinize - an ongoing coordinated operation launched by the National Crime Agency tackling money laundering, the criminal use of cash-intensives in high street businesses and immigration crime.
Officers and their partner colleagues visited two shops in the Marsh House Lane area and uncovered sizable amounts of illicit and illegal products in the form of loose tobacco, illegal cigarettes and vapes.
Additionally, these illicit products had been hidden in sophisticated concealments out of sight within the shops. However, thanks to the assistance of a specialist tobacco detection dog from Wagtail UK, the products were quickly identified and seized by officers.
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A self-storage shipping container located near the Pink Eye roundabout in Warrington town centre was also revealed as another hiding place for illegal products, with nearly 4500 illegal vapes being found inside and subsequently removed.
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In total, officers seized:
- 28,840 illicit cigarettes
- 22.65kg of illicit tobacco
- 4499 illegal vapes
The combined total of items seized from across the two shops equated to an estimated street value of £38,000.
An illegal worker was also arrested by Immigration teams, and, later, a second person working within a shop on Orford Lane was arrested by officers on suspicion of public order offences.
Detective Inspector Upile Mtitimila, of the force’s Protective Vulnerable People Unit, said:
“We work hard to tackle criminals operating in our communities and, while many businesses across Warrington are operating within the law, we have seen that there are a brazen few who, wrongly, think they can get away with distributing products that remain illegal for a reason.
“However, as this operation has shown, there really is nowhere to hide when we work in step with our partner organisations with a common goal in mind: keeping Cheshire a hostile environment for crime.
“These excellent results are a testament to the tireless work of our officers and wider community partners who day in and day out work to tackle organised criminals, as well as those who exploit the most vulnerable people in our society.
“With that in mind, we cannot take action like this without your support. Intelligence submitted to us from members of the public is vital to our investigations, so I would encourage anyone with any information or concerns about illegal activity in their area to get in touch and let us do the rest.”
Warrington Borough Council’s cabinet member for licensing, Cllr John Kerr-Brown, added:
"The criminals involved in the trade of illicit tobacco and illegal vapes are often highly sophisticated and well-organised. This isn’t a matter of a few rogue shopkeepers - many operations are part of wider criminal networks that use advanced methods to evade detection and maximise profit.
“We urge members of the public to avoid purchasing from establishments known to sell illegal tobacco or non-compliant vaping products. Supporting these businesses fuels criminal activity and endangers public health.
“We’re grateful to partners for their support to tackle this criminality.”