Wiltshire Council has confirmed it raided three stores in a Wiltshire town and seized “illegal” vapes and tobacco.
The council’s trading standards team, assisted by Wiltshire Police, led an operation targeting businesses in the town centre selling counterfeit goods on Friday, November 8.
Wiltshire Police had previously revealed that a “significant” number of counterfeit vapes and cigarettes were discovered and subsequently seized during these raids.
Now the council has confirmed that three businesses were raided in total and that an investigation remains ongoing.
While officers were spotted at multiple stores, neither the council nor the police have been able to confirm which ones are still suspected of committing any offences.
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Cllr Dominic Muns, cabinet member for public protection, told this paper the council was unable to comment further until the probe is concluded.
He said: “We can confirm that three businesses in Chippenham were raided on Friday, November 8 by our Trading Standards team and that some illegal tobacco and a number of illegal vapes were seized.
“As the investigation is ongoing, we are unable to say more at this stage.
“We want to thank Wiltshire Police for their assistance during the raids and we encourage people to report the sales of illegal tobacco products to us at https://my.wiltshire.gov.uk/illicit-tobacco-or-cigarettes.”
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