£3,000,000 of Illegal Vapes
Greater Manchester Police continue to help Trading Standards to crack down on illegal black market vapes and the Rochdale Division discovered a massive haul last week
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by Dave Cross
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The record-breaking visit was led by the Rochdale Division Partnership Enforcement Team – which consists of Housing Enforcement, Counter Fraud, Trading Standards, and Greater Manchester Police – who were acting on intelligence linked to a current investigation.
Officers say that during the visit in Victoria Street, Chadderton, a quantity of counterfeit clothing was located, and a huge haul of illegal vapes.
The vapes, which numbered in their thousands, had an estimated value of approximately three million pounds. The police said that because the vapes are not regulated they can cause harm to their users, “as some vaping products can contain illicit or harmful contents.”
The team reports that the vapes and clothing were seized and enquiries are ongoing.
Inspector Gareth Davies, from Greater Manchester Police’s Rochdale district, said: “Our partnership team is committed to keeping illegal products off our streets. We will continue to take proactive action to tackle illegal vaping products and ensure that these potentially harmful products are kept out of stores.
“Our work has already seen us seize countless vapes, through a mixture of store visits, raids, and warrants across anywhere that we receive intelligence.
“If you have any information about counterfeit or illegal goods, then please do get in touch with us. You can do this by contacting us on 101, or by calling Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. You can also report anything at gmp.police.uk.”
Between June and October, officers said that illegal vapes and tobacco worth almost £100,000 had been confiscated as part of the five-month “crackdown”.
Councillor Elaine Taylor said: “Together with our partners, we continue to take action against traders who sell goods that are unlawful and potentially unsafe.”
This included raids in August that removed 2,590 illegal vapes from the street of Oldham – non-compliant disposables that police estimated were worth almost £30,000.
Photo Credit:
Both images: Oldham Council
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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