Police and tax officer have seized more than 100,000 fake and smuggled cigarettes following a series of raids on Huddersfield shopkeepers.
Officers from Huddersfield Neighbourhood Policing Team in conjunction with revenue and customs officials visited eight shops in and around the town centre on Friday.
Non UK duty paid and counterfeit cigarettes were seized from six shops – including almost 100,000 cigarettes from one shop alone.
Officers also confiscated 6,000 further cigarettes and 8kg of tobaccos from the five other shops
The largest haul belonged to a Moldgreen shopkeeper and were found hidden in a shipping container close to the store.
One man has been arrested and bailed pending further inquiries.
Sgt Mandy Mellor from Huddersfield NPT said a total of 96,730 cigarettes and 10.5kg of tobacco were recovered – a loss of £37,000 worth of UK duty.
The cigarettes were a mix of genuine smuggled ones and counterfeit so-called “cheap white” cigarettes, made deliberately for the black market..
Illegal shisha tobacco was also found at two shops.
Sgt Mellor said she was delighted to have taken so many illegal cigarettes out of the black market.
“It was a good day which was intelligence-led,” she said. “We’ve worked with our partners at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and got a great result.
“We will do these kinds of operations as often as we can.
“It’s against the law to sell counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes and we don’t know if some of them are safe to smoke.”
A decision on whether to prosecute the shopkeepers found with illegal products will be made by HMRC over the next few days.
Sgt Mellor said it was likely warnings would be handed out in this instance.
