Illegal tobacco and alcohol claims over Walsall shop
Thousands of illegal cigarettes and litres of alcohol have allegedly been sold from a Walsall off-licence, it has been revealed.
UK Zabka has applied to extend its licensing hours, but documents released by the council reveal the store, in Caldmore, is at the centre of a trading standards investigation, having been raided twice in 12 months.
On June 13, trading standards and West Midlands Police with sniffer dogs swooped on the premises under an operation codenamed Cavalier. They discovered a van, at the back of the shop, which was thought to be a 'satellite' storage unit for Zabka, which contained 31,680 illicit cigarettes and 70 illegal packets of hand rolling tobacco.
Officers also allegedly found alcohol on the shelves, which had avoided UK duty.
Police described the 'significant discovery' as the smaller end of a much larger criminal enterprise.
It came after Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, together with trading standards, visited the shop on September 9 last year and found thousands of litres of alcohol on the shelves thought to have been smuggled into the country having avoided duty.
In total the haul contained 35 litres of wine, 2,682.5 litres of beer and 17.45 litres of spirits.
Police have drawn upon the alleged illegal trade to lodge an unequivocal objection to the shop's application to extending its licensing hours from serving alcohol until 11pm to 3am instead. Trading standards have also opposed the move.
Officer Brian Jones said: "If the premises was able to sell alcohol until 3am I feel that this will only aid criminal activity."
Mr Ali denied his shop had been involved in any illegal activity when approached by the Express & Star.
He said: "There has never been anything illegal happening at my shop, it is very well run."
The investigation into both raids is still ongoing and in the meantime UK Zabka is still open.
