Police seize smuggled cigarettes

More than 400,000 smuggled cigarettes were seized from an industrial unit when HM Revenue and Customs carried out a raid.

The cigarettes, which included brands such as Capital, Regal, Raquel, Richman Royals and Gold Classics, were seized from the unit in Aldridge on Monday and officers said if they had been sold on the black market, it would have resulted in a loss of more than £60,000 to the public purse.

Spokeswoman for HMRC Jennie Kendall said she could not reveal the exact location of the industrial unit, or where the cigarettes were smuggled from for "operational reasons".

Keith Morgan, specialist investigation detection manager for HMRC, said: "We take tobacco smuggling very seriously. It's costing the British taxpayer around £2 billion a year in lost revenue to the public purse and has a devastating impact on honest retailers having to compete with the black market economy."

Two men in their 50s, from Pelsall, were arrested and later bailed by HMRC pending further investigations.

It is the latest discovery of smuggled cigarettes in Walsall.

It follows a haul of almost 200,000 illegal cigarettes found earlier this month following raids in the Black Country and Birmingham. The majority of the haul was found in West Bromwich, with cigarettes also found in Walsall and Birmingham.

As well as tobacco, officers from HM Revenues and Customs, with the help of a tobacco detection dog, also confiscated hand-rolling tobacco and counterfeit spirits.

A raid on a self-storage unit in West Bromwich uncovered 158,240 cigarettes, 66lbs of hand rolling tobacco and 221.2 litres of fake spirits.

On the same day, 23,080 cigarettes and 4lbs of hand rolling tobacco were recovered from a shop in Birmingham and on Thursday 9,550 mixed brand cigarettes were seized from a shop in Caldmore Green in Walsall.