Last week, our officers supported an illegal tobacco disruption operation that investigated four local retail premises. The operation was part of a large-scale initiative across the South West. The nationally funded ‘Operation CeCe’ took part between Monday 10 and Friday 14 March.

The team’s visits to the four retail premises in Torbay resulted in the seizure of a variety of illegal products. These included 333 packs of cigarettes, 119 pouches of tobacco and 266 vapes. The street value of locally seized products is estimated at over £7800.

Trading Standards South West (TSSW) led the operation. The team were supported by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) and immigration officials. The partnership inspected a total of 50 retail premises with the help of specially trained dogs.

A total of 127,371 illegal cigarettes and 65.94kg of illegal hand rolling tobacco were seized in the South West. 4,490 illegal vapes and 2.5kg of Shisha or flavoured tobacco were also seized. The total value of goods seized as part of the week of action is in the region of £186,000. More than £100,000 of profit has been prevented from reaching organised criminal gangs.

Cheap, illegal tobacco and vapes are easily accessible to young people. The illegal sale of these products exposes innocent people to criminal networks. The money made from the sale of illegal goods is used by organised criminal gangs to finance other illegal activities. These activities include drug sales, modern day slavery and people trafficking.

Councillor David Thomas, Leader of Torbay Council said: “The success of the operation will have long term benefits for our local communities. The disruption of criminals and their distribution channels will reduce the risk of local people being exposed to criminality. The operation prevented dangerous unregulated products from reaching the public, further protecting the people of Torbay from personal health risks.

“The operation supports the council’s commitment to make the streets of Torbay safer for all. We’ve sent a clear message to criminal networks that the distribution of illegal goods will not be tolerated in Torbay and the wider South West.”

 

Ben Hayes, Regional Illegal Tobacco and Vape Lead in the South West said: “This has been another successful multi-agency operation to tackle illegal tobacco disruption, and the criminals who operate in our communities.

“Members of public need to be aware of serious criminal association that these products have to criminal gangs. I urge anyone with concerns about sales of the illegal tobacco and vaping products, including underage sales, to report them to Trading Standards South West www.tssw.org.uk/report-it. You may have the missing piece of information that we need to disrupt serious and organised crime.”  

 

Lord Michael Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said: “The trade in illegal tobacco harms local communities and affects honest businesses operating within the law. Having removed 60,473,235 cigarettes and 16,416kg of hand rolling tobacco between 1 January 2001 and 30 September 2024 in England and Wales, Operation CeCe) has taken £35.3million pounds worth of illicit tobacco off the market since the operation launched in 2021 and continues to successfully disrupt this illicit trade.”

 

Matt Lenny, South West Association of Directors of Public Health, said: “Smoking is the leading cause of premature, preventable death nationally and in the South West, killing up to half of its users. Cheap, illegal tobacco undermines smokers’ attempts to quit their addiction to tobacco, it is also more easily available to children and young people often leading to a lifetime addiction.”

 

Support and advice to stop smoking can be found on the NHS Better Health website at www.nhs.uk/live-well/quit-smoking. Details of local support to quit can be found at on www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/ready-to-quit-smoking/find-your-local-stop-smoking-service.

 

Sales of illegal tobacco and/or vapes can be reported anonymously to the Trading Standards South West team at www.tssw.org.uk/report-it or by calling the Citizens Advice consumer advice line on 0808 223 1133.