20,000 illegal cigarettes sniffed out in raid on Berkshire shop

A sniffer dog helped to find more than 20,000 illegal and counterfeit cigarettes of worth £5,000 during a raid on a shop in Reading in Berkshire.

According to local reports, the illegal products were seized during an inspection at European Mini Mart on Oxford Road on Jan 31. The visit took place under Operation CeCe, a National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HM Revenue and Customs.

The counterfeit goods were found hidden in fast delivery cool bags behind the counter in the shop. YoYo, handled by Stuart Phillips of B.W.Y Canine, also checked the rest of the shop and vehicles.

Cllr Karen Rowland, Reading Council's lead member for environmental services and community safety, said, “This is a very positive result, with thanks to the council, partner agencies – and last, but not least, Yoyo - to tackle organised criminal activity in Reading and keep our residents safe.

“Detection dogs are highly skilled and can find tobacco and cigarettes hidden in the most unlikely of places. Offenders need to know that they can very likely face some quite significant consequences if they choose to deal in these illegal products.

“Results such as this send a strong message to traders to simply not choose to stock such illegal products. Far from being a victimless crime, those involved in the illegal tobacco trade are compliant in making it more attractive for children to start smoking, and taking advantage of cash-strapped families, all of which often feeds in to the funding of organised crime.”

The counterfeit cigarettes will be destroyed. Illegal tobacco products are cigarettes or hand rolling tobacco that have been smuggled, bootlegged or are fake.