£365,000 worth of illegal vapes, cigarettes and tobacco seized from retail premises.

Dear Resident

Walsall town centre officers supported Walsall Council’s Trading Standards team and a specialist search dog team as they sniffed out £365,000 worth of illegal vapes, cigarettes and tobacco from retail premises.

Our St Matthew’s Team 2 took part in the raid at a premises in Walsall last Wednesday (2 July).

Neighbourhood officers supported the Trading Standards led operation where four retail premises, a vehicle, and a storage unit were raided.

Sniffer dogs Griff, Cooper and Bran—highly trained in detecting tobacco and vapes—assisted the team. At a self-storage yard, Griff identified a unit containing illegal cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco. Inside, some counterfeit cigarettes were even concealed inside boxes labelled as barbecues.     

 The operation uncovered approximately 100 kilograms of illegal hand-rolling tobacco, 287,000 illicit cigarettes, and 350 illegal disposable vapes worth £365,000.

Sergeant David Woods, from St Matthew’s Team 2, said: “It is great to support our partners at Walsall Council Trading Standards and this operation was a huge success as a large amount of illegal goods were taken off our streets. We look forward to supporting them in future operations in Walsall.”