Illegal cigarettes are seized in campaign
A PUBLIC campaign in Rochdale has led to an increase in reports of illegal tobacco sales, enabling Trading Standards to make a number of seizures over recent months.
In Rochdale, the Keep It Out campaign generated 12 reports of illegal tobacco being sold between March and October 2020.
In the same period more than 1.7 million illegal cigarettes and more than 100kg of illegal hand rolling tobacco were seized across the Greater Manchester conurbation.
This included Trading Standards’ largest ever single seizure in the city region.
Enforcement officers in Greater Manchester are warning that cheap tobacco sold locally as “duty-free” during the COVID-19 pandemic is almost certainly illegal.
The alert comes after a public campaign in Rochdale led to a dramatic increase in reports of illegal sales, which has enabled
Trading Standards to make a number of seizures over recent months.
The Keep it Out campaign, which reveals the true cost of cheap illegal tobacco, including links to organised crime and the devastating impact smoking has on people’s health, is run by Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, in collaboration with Local Authority Trading Standards and enforcement partners from across the city region.
Alongside their warning, enforcement officers have also issued a new video showing a raid of a Greater Manchester shop on May 12, where illegal tobacco was being sold under the counter.
The footage shows enforcement officers gaining entry and discovering a large volume of illegal cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco hidden in a locked room that was connected to the counter via an adjacent secret hatch.
Tobacco bought on the illegal market is more likely to be the result of organised criminal activity with links to human trafficking, the drugs trade and loan sharks bringing crime into the region’s communities and exploiting vulnerable people. Dealers will also sell to children, getting them hooked on smoking.
Coun Daalat Ali, cabinet member for healthy lives at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “These highly addictive tobacco products are being sold by organised crime gangs with links to human trafficking, loan sharking and the drugs trade so the potential harm for our borough’s residents is serious.
“Thank you to everyone who has made reports which will help to keep illegal tobacco out of local businesses and our community.”