Illegal booze and cigarettes seized

Suspected illicit cigarettes

More than a million cigarettes and 74 litres of booze have been seized during raids across Greater Manchester.

Officers from HM Revenue and Customs and support agencies visited 50 shops and 12 storage units, seizing suspected tobacco and alcohol at 29 of them.

The seized goods included 1,016,653 cigarettes, 73.60 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco and 52.36 kilos of shisha tobacco, with an estimated £267,000 in duty and VAT evaded, and 74.25 litres of alcohol, with an estimated £1,900 in duty and VAT evaded.

Sandra Smith, assistant director of HMRC Fraud Investigation Service, said: “Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around £2.1 billion a year, and the sale of illicit alcohol which costs the UK around £1 billion per year.

“This is theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders."