More than one million illegal cigarettes worth around £800,000 were seized in the last 18 months by Warwickshire County Council's trading standards service.

Officers seized over 50,000 packets of counterfeit or non-duty paid cigarettes during raids on suspected shops across the county, as well over nearly 300kg of illegal hand rolling tobacco (5773 packets).

Had the 1,008,660 cigarettes been genuine they would have sold for £778,000 - their value as illegal products is around £320,000.

Trading standards has also been acting on the concerns over the availability of illegal vapes and in the last year has seized 10,100, depriving the sellers of an income of £120,000.

Officers have also been working with the landlords of problem shops to get the sellers evicted.

Jonathon Toy, service manager for trading standards and Community Safety said: "Whilst I am shocked by the sheer number of illegal cigarettes this service has seized in such a short period of time, I'm delighted that we are protecting the health of Warwickshire residents while we continue to disrupt the sale of these products and deprive their sellers and the organised crime groups they work for, of significant sums of money.

"The availability of illegal cigarettes, often sold at pocket money prices makes it easier for children to start smoking and get hooked and more difficult for existing smokers to quit their habit.

"We also know that sellers have strong links with criminal gangs and the money they make may end up supporting drug dealing, money laundering and people trafficking."

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"We are also concerned by the availability of illegal vapes, and I'm pleased we are continuing to disrupt their sale in Warwickshire."

All illegal products seized are destroyed once any legal proceedings are concluded.

Report the sale of illegal cigarettes, tobacco and nicotine inhaling vapes to Warwickshire Trading Standards via the Central England Trading Standards Authorities confidential fakes hotline, phone 0300 303 2636.