Council seizes over £20k worth of illegal tobacco, prescription drugs, 'unsafe' vapes and nitrous oxide from six town centre premises

The sale of illegal tobacco costs the UK taxpayer around £2.3 billion a year

Over £20,000 of illegal tobacco plus prescription drugs, unsafe vapes and canisters of nitrous oxide have been seized from six premises in Rochdale town centre.

The visits were part of Operation Plagio, led by the council’s partnership enforcement team, which is a specialist multi-agency team, consisting of partners from housing enforcement, trading standards, GMP and the counter fraud team, who deal with serious organised and complex crime problems that affect our communities.

Operation Plagio tackles the distribution and sale of illegal tobacco and associated criminality; the team has already seized £1 million worth of illegal tobacco in similar operations since October last year. The sale of illegal tobacco costs the UK taxpayer around £2.3 billion a year, undermining vital public services and bankrolling a host of other crimes that harm communities.

Rochdale's Chief Inspector Danny Atherton said: “It’s great to see that our partnership is working so successfully across the borough of Rochdale and that it is helping to tackle the harms caused by tobacco and is protecting our residents.”

Councillor Susan Smith, cabinet member for communities and cooperation said: “I’m so pleased that we have successfully seized these illegal products, illegal tobacco is brought into our communities by organised criminals.

“It’s sold by people who don’t care who they’re selling to, including children. This and other recent seizures show, if our officers know where it’s being sold they can tackle it. I’d encourage anyone who is concerned about illegal tobacco being sold in their area to report this anonymously online or over the phone.”

Deputy leader councillor Sara Rowbotham MBE said: “I would like to thank the team who took this harmful tobacco and other illegal products out of our community and the residents who reported their concerns.

“We want to let everyone know that we are taking this very seriously and are tackling this crime. We also want to send a clear message to the landlords of the shops that they are in receipt of proceeds of crime.

“We encourage people to report any suspicions.”

Do you know where illegal tobacco is being sold? Report it anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or contact the council’s trading standards team by emailing trading.standards@rochdale.co.uk