Black Market Burnt in Burnley
Ongoing announcements about Operation CeCe and Operation Joseph raids reveal that £25K worth of cigarettes, tobacco and vapes were seized in Burnley
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by Dave Cross
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As part of ongoing Operation CeCe and Operation Joseph operations, the Burnley Neighbourhood Policing Team worked in conjunction with officers from the Lancashire Trading Standards team to seize illicit tobacco and vapes in the Burnley area. Raids discovered sizeable quantities of illegal cigarettes, tobacco and vapes – with officers estimating the retail value as being over £25,000.
In total, officers from the Lancashire Trading Standards team seized:
- 997 packets of cigarettes
- 173 pouches of tobacco
- 523 vapes
The Neighbourhood Police and Trading Standards say they intend to continue to focus on retailers and individuals supplying illicit tobacco and vape products. They claim these unregulated products are dangerous because they “sometimes contain harmful ingredients such as arsenic and rat droppings”.
It should be noted that no vape product has ever been shown to be contaminated with rodent excrement.
A spokesperson for the operation said: “This week Burnley Neighbourhood Policing Team have been assisting colleagues from Lancashire Trading Standards seizing illegal tobacco and vapes in the Burnley area. This included a substantial number of illegal cigarettes, tobacco and vapes at an approximate retail value of £25,000.
“Burnley Neighbourhood Police and Trading Standards will continue to target those involved in the sale of illegal products and dealt with accordingly. Illicit tobacco and vapes are a danger to the community as they are not regulated and sometimes contain harmful ingredients such as arsenic and rat droppings, amongst other things.
“Any information of illegal tobacco products can be reported online, via telephone on 101 or anonymously via Crimestoppers.”
Officers say concerned individuals can report information of illegal products online, by telephone on 101, or anonymously to Crimestoppers.
Operation CeCe
Operation CeCe granted new powers for Local Authority Trading Standards to refer cases to HMRC for further investigation. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), where appropriate, will administer the penalties and ensure the appropriate sanction is applied and enforced.
In its first 2 years, more than 27 million illicit cigarettes and 7,500kg of hand-rolling tobacco were seized under Operation CeCe, according to HMRC and National Trading Standards.
Businesses and individuals who sell illicit tobacco products face penalties of up to £10,000. The sanctions are claimed to bolster the government’s efforts to tackle the illicit tobacco market and reduce tobacco duty fraud.
Operation Joseph
Operation Joseph is a government funded project to tackle specific aspects of enforcement and compliance around the sale of vaping products including collating national data on enforcement, supporting local authorities to increase enforcement activity, targeted testing and port seizure work. The project is led by National Trading Standards. Operation Joseph is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Photo Credit:
Van image by Oli Woodman on Unsplash, cropped and resized
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
