Four thousand pounds' worth of illicit tobacco was seized by Staffordshire County Council's trading standards team during raids this month.

Working in partnership with Police Licensing and Immigration, the team made seizures at three independent retail premises in North Staffordshire.

The operation resulted in seizures of 4,580 illegal cigarettes, 2.15 kg of illegal hand rolling tobacco and 135 illegal disposable vape products. It's part of an ongoing operation to combat the sale and supply of illegal tobacco.

Officers were supported by specially trained search dogs from Wagtail UK in the raids undertaken as part of Operation CeCe, a National Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC to tackle illegal tobacco.

Victoria Wilson, cabinet member with responsibility for trading standards at Staffordshire County Council said: "The sale of illicit or counterfeit tobacco products is a crime that not only damages local communities and people's health but also harms legitimate businesses.

"These latest raids prove that the service will continue to take the necessary action where they know it is going on. All tobacco is harmful but illegal tobacco makes it easier for children to start smoking and get hooked. Sellers also rarely care who they sell to, so I would urge anyone with information about the sale of such products to get in touch with the team.

"In the UK, it is estimated that about one in 10 of all cigarettes and half of all hand-rolling tobacco are not duty paid. The illegal trade in tobacco also has strong links to organised crime and illicit tobacco can have a devastating effect on health."

During recent years, Staffordshire County Council's trading standards team has uncovered over three million illegal Cigarettes and almost 200kg of illegal Hand Rolling Tobacco with an estimated street value of £1,026,476.

Anyone with information about the sale of counterfeit tobacco and cigarettes in Staffordshire should call the Fight the Fakes hotline on 01785 330356 or visit www.staffordshire.gov.uk/fakes. People can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.uk or 0800 555 111.