The huge volumes of illicit trade is approximated to cost the economy an excess of two billion pounds annually.
It is worrying that many of these cigarette counterfeits have been proven to contain human poo, rat droppings, asbestos and arsenic materials.
The Local Government Association representing 370 councils in Wales and England has made proposals for heavier fines for those caught selling counterfeit cigarettes.
Crooks have made fake cigarettes which look like some popular brands. These illegal cigarettes are then smuggled from other countries to evade payment of taxes.
Now local authorities have started using sniffer dogs to see if they can get the smuggled cigarettes. Recently, they discovered that that traders hide the cigarettes in toilet cisterns, sweet boxes, walls and the floor.
Authorities in England and Wales have indicated that “Fake cigarettes contain even higher levels of cancer-causing toxins than standard cigarettes.”
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