Over 10,000 cigarettes seized from Salisbury shop
Wiltshire Trading Standards officers worked with Salisbury Police for the incident.
Over 10,000 cigarettes and 4.5kg of rolling tobacco have been seized from a Salisbury shop after an unannounced inspection.
The items taken were believed to be a mixture of:
- Illicit whites - which are cigarettes mass-manufactured using fake brand names to be illegally imported into the UK
- Counterfeit cigarettes - which are illegally manufactured imitations of established brands
The manufacturing of illicit products is completely unregulated, as customers don't know what harmful substances they contain.
Previously seized products by Wiltshire Trading Standards have been found to include a variety of dangerous chemicals, asbestos and even rat poison.
An investigation into the shop is underway following the seizure.
People are now being asked to report the sale of illicit tobacco at www.swillegaltobacco.info.