Illicit Tobacco Partnership

Warning to shops as illegal tobacco drive is launched

Thousands of illegal cigarettes with a market value of £24,000 have been seized from a home in Newcastle. Trading standards officers with Newcastle City Council visited the residential property on Wednesday morning.  

A Stockton shop has lost its booze licence after the owner tried to transfer his licence to a “mate” following a trading standards raid.        

The tobacco industry is working to secure control of a system to track the movement of cigarettes around the world, allegedly because it is complicit in the smuggling of its own products, according to a new research paper.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) seized more than eight million cigarettes and 200kg of hand-rolling tobacco from an industrial unit used by Moon and his gang. All the goods were counterfeit.

Northern Ireland: Woman arrested in Belfast after 40,000 suspected illicit cigarettes seized

Counterfeit and tax-free tobacco was being sold from a general store fitted out with secret compartments to hide the illegal activity, a court heard

 Stockton woman who hid thousands of illegal cigarettes inside Dr Dre headphone boxes has been ordered to repay £16,000.

A Middlesbrough couple caught with almost 140,000 illegal cigarettes have been handed suspended jail terms.

This is the suspected illegal stash of 6,000 cigarettes discovered in a Gateshead shop – hidden behind a concealed basement wall.