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SMOKED-OUT!
Birmingham Mail
|June 10, 2025
'WE'RE RIPPING THE PLACE TO SHREDS'... ILLEGAL CIGS AND VAPES SHOPS RAIDED
A BIRMINGHAM convenience store was found to have a van full of illicit cigarettes worth £500,000.
The Erdington High Street shop was one of two premises raided by Trading Standards officers and West Midlands Police yesterday morning.
The action saw multiple cars seized, including a battered Transit van in a back alley behind the shop, which was found to have a whopping one million cigarettes worth £500,000.
The Birmingham Mail was there to witness officers smashing their way into a BMW 3 series outside the shop which resulted in more illicit tobacco being seized.
Police, council and immigration officers led two intelligence-based raids on Erdington stores a part of Operation Fearless and Operation Cloud, the latter of which is run by Trading Standards.
This story is from the June 10, 2025 edition of Birmingham Mail.
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