MORE than 2,000 cigarettes, as well as 6kg of tobacco and 70 illegal vapes, have been seized from premises in Denbighshire.

Premises in Rhyl, Rhuddlan and Ruthin were targeted by Denbighshire County Council’s trading standards officers, along with Wagtail detection dogs, after test purchase operations found them to be selling these products.

Of the six visits conducted, five resulted in illicit products being seized.

During the searches, items were discovered concealed in a variety of ways - illegal tobacco and cigarettes were found in purpose-built hidden compartments that were secured by electromagnets, and illegal vapes were concealed inside unopened crisp boxes.

Cllr Alan James, the council’s lead member for local development and planning, said: “This is another example of the great work that our trading standards officers are doing to take illegal products such as these off the shelves.

“The items seized were counterfeit and carry serious safety and health issues to those people buying and using them.

“The products have not been safety tested and the cigarettes pose a real fire safety risk as they do not have the safety burn ring.

“From a health point of view, the contents of the tobacco and vapes are unknown, and they could potentially have harmful levels of illegal chemicals far beyond the normal risks of genuine authorised tobacco products.

“Our residents play a vital role in identifying areas and persons of interest, which help our trading standard officers to investigate and get illegal tobacco, vapes and other products out of the community.”