Another massive hoard of illegal cigarettes has been removed from a Great Yarmouth town centre shop as part of an on-going county-wide operation.
A joint operation between Norfolk Trading Standards and Great Yarmouth police saw a shop raided in King Street and more than 22,000 illegal cigarettes seized.
The raid also snared 3.5kg of rolling tobacco.
A Tweet from Great Yarmouth police said it was a joint operation to remove “illegal and potentially dangerous tobacco off the streets of Yarmouth”.
There have been similar previous raids in the town before.
A statement from Norfolk Trading Standards said: “Following intelligence received Norfolk Trading Standards visited one shop in Yarmouth as part of our ongoing work to counter the supply of illegal tobacco in Norfolk.
“During the visit we seized over 22,000 illegal cigarettes and 3.5kg of hand-rolling tobacco.
“We were assisted on this visit by Great Yarmouth Police.”
In January more than 27,000 illegal cigarettes were seized in raids on two shops, with a sniffer dog finding some of the stash hidden in a secret compartment behind a water heater.
The King Street shop is next to a vacant store that was commonly known as Yarmouth Food & Wine and which had had been raided before in September with smuggled cigarettes and tobacco found in an elaborate hide, dug into the wall behind an electrical fuse box in the store room.
In that month more than 73,000 illegal cigarettes were found in a total of three shops in one week.
For those raids Trading Standards inspectors were accompanied by Great Yarmouth police, along with BWY Canine Limited, with detection dogs Scamp, Yoyo and Ralph on duty to sniff out the illegal stashes
Norfolk Trading Standards continues to urge people to report the sale of illegal cigarettes and tobacco across the county.
The Trading Standards spokesman said: “If anyone wishes to report any information about the sale of illegal tobacco in Norfolk, they can do this through our partners the Citizens Advice Consumer helpline on 03454 04 05 06.”
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