Police swoop on tobacco, vapes and 'unsafe toys'

CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL ITEMS SOLD BY ORGANISED CRIME

- By CARL EVE

A NATIONAL Crime Agency-led operation saw officers from Devon and Cornwall Police and the Heart of the South West Trading Standards join forces to tackled organised crime in and around Plymouth.

Throughout October, officers from the police and Trading Standards, along with other partner agencies including the fire service, HMRC and Home Office Immigration Enforcement, took part in Operation Machinize 2, the latest iteration of an ongoing national operation.

Op Machinize is specifically aimed at high street businesses which turn over a lot of cash, as these can be exploited by organised criminals.

The NCA estimates that £12 billion of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, and it can be laundered by being mixed into the legitimate financial system of this sort of high street business or used to fund other criminal activity.

The type of premises that have been visited in Plymouth, Cornwall and South Devon include barbershops, vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes.

This followed the seizure in early October of around £100,000 worth of counterfeit tobacco, cigarettes and vapes in Plymouth.

Det Chief Insp Glenn Willcocks said: "One of the main aspects of Op Machinize is that it is multi-agency. Devon & Cornwall Police officers have been working alongside HMRC, Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, Home Office Immigration Enforcement and the fire service.

"This means that we have colleagues with relevant powers on hand if we encounter crimes other than money laundering, for instance counterfeit goods or immigration offences. As an example, our Home Office colleagues are on hand to question people about their immigration status should they need to."