A BMW 3 Series was also smashed in by officers in search of counterfeit and illegal tobacco and vapes this morning, June 9
A Birmingham convenience store was found to have a van full of illicit cigarettes worth £500,000 during a police raid this morning, June 9.
The Erdington High Street shop was one of two premises raided by Trading Standards officers and West Midlands Police on Monday morning.
The action saw multiple cars seized, including a battered Transit van in the back-alley behind the shop found to have a whopping 1 million cigarettes worth £500,000.
BirminghamLive also watched as officers smashed their way into a BMW 3 series outside the shop which resulted in more illicit tobacco being seized.
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Officers from the police, council and immigration led two intel-based raids on Erdington stores a part of Operation Fearless and Operation Cloud, the latter of which is run by Trading Standards.
A total of £750,000 of illegal and counterfeit tobacco, vapes and cigarettes were seized across two shops in Erdington High Street, with residents telling us that “many more” needed targeting.
The first shop saw £500,000 worth of counterfeit cigarettes, tobacco and vapes seized and the second saw £250,000 snared.
At around 10am on Monday morning BirminghamLive joined half a dozen trading standards officers, two immigration officers, and around seven West Midlands Police officers at the first premises.
The convenience store sold an array of snacks, soft drink cans and had a huge wall of vapes behind the till.
West Midlands Police Operation Fearless in action in the centre of Erdington – working with Trading Standards and Immigration Enforcement. Pictured: Mohammed Tariq of Birmingham Trading Standards with a large haul of counterfeit cigarettes being stored in a van behind a shop.
Scores of vapes, most of which were illegal as they were single-use, were pulled off the shelves by Trading Standards for being stronger than the law allows.
The legal strength for vapes is 600 puffs, Trading Standards told us, but packs seized from the first shop were as strong as 15,000 puffs.
Mohammed Tariq, lead officer for Trading Standards who goes as Tariq, explained: “We are ripping the place to shreds, the community is fed up.
“It has been a fantastic result.”
Within minutes, officers are lifting the ceiling and moving plywood in the store rooms behind the till – nothing was found while we were there.
Soon the focus of action centres on a battered transit van, parked in the back alley behind the shop.
The vehicle turned out to contain a huge amount of counterfeit cigarettes.
West Midlands Police Operation Fearless in action in the centre of Erdington – working with Trading Standards and Immigration Enforcement. Pictured: Illegal vapes about to be confiscated.(Image: Birmingham Live)
Tariq told us: “We’ve seized 1 million cigarettes from the back of this van with an estimated street value of £500,000.
“We target shops and organised crime groups involved in selling illicit vapes and cigarettes.”
When asked how they know which shops to target, Tariq explained that the raids are all intel based, meaning they knew exactly where to find the van.
He said that the production of illegal and counterfeit vapes are often linked to organised criminal groups.
West Midlands Police Operation Fearless in action in the centre of Erdington – working with Trading Standards and Immigration Enforcement.(Image: Birmingham Live)
Operation Fearless officers told us how in previous weeks they had raided an illegal tobacco factory operation from Birmingham’s Southside district – the produce of which will often end up on the shelve in 24-hour stores in Erdington and neighbourhoods across the city.
A raid of a second shop around the corner, which had a fruit stall ‘front’, saw £250,000 worth of vapes and tobacco taken by Trading Standards.
A West Midlands Police spokesperson said following the raid that Trading Standards’ latest estimate of the value of goods seized on Monday is £750,000.
A West Midlands Police investigation into the businesses is ongoing.
Fearless officers also caught and arrested a suspected shop thief following a short chase on the High Street.
Det Insp Tom Lyons, from Operation Fearless, said: “Operation Fearless made a commitment that we would work partners to disrupt the supply of illegal goods in Erdington, and today we’ve been doing exactly that.
“The items seized today can be dangerous, and the profits made by those involved in their supply can bring further harm to communities.
“Intelligence from the community is really valuable, and we would urge anyone with information about goods like these to get in touch with us.”