SUPER COOPER DOES IT AGAIN
Over 40,000 cigarettes and 24Kg of hand rolling tobacco have been seized thanks to specialist search dogs from Pembrokeshire based Stuart Phillips K9.
Officers from Gateshead Council's Trading Standards team and Police Officers from Northumbria Police uncovered the haul at Whitehall Corner Shop on Rawling Road, and Ali Baba on Coatsworth Road, with the assistance of a specially trained search dogs called Cooper and Yoyo.
The vast majority of the illegal products were located within vehicles associated with the owners of the shops, as well as a quantity at a private residence. A further amount was found concealed in a hidden compartment within a stock room and would have not been located without the assistance of tobacco search dog Cooper, a fox red Labrador.
The searches took place as part of Operation CeCe, a national Trading Standards initiative in partnership with HMRC to tackle illegal tobacco.
Read more here: https://www.gateshead.gov.uk/article/20813/Raids-uncover-Illegal-tobacco-and-vaping-products-linked-to-Bensham-shops
We will continue to work with our partners and support them in any way we can to ensure harmful and illegal items are seized and taken out of circulation."Those living in our communities might not see any issues with buying counterfeit cigarettes or illegal goods, but what they might not realise is that the money made from selling goods like these are often funnelled into organised crime and used to help those breaking the law carry out further illicit activity.Inspector Kevin Ashurst from Northumbria Police
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Stuart Phillips