MORE than 10,000 cigarettes and 5kg of illegal tobacco valued a a total of £3,000 have been seized in Bradford as part of a series of raids.

The haul, recovered from five premises across Bradford, formed part of an overall seizure of more than 37,000 cigarettes and 22kg of illegal tobacco valued at more than £10,000 in West Yorkshire, it was revealed today.

The raids by West Yorkshire Trading Standards took place at eight premises in a large scale operation against illegal tobacco.

The Bradford raids took place on February 9 and 10 this year and resulted in a total of 10,868 cigarettes being found.

The illicit products were discovered during the raids, co-ordinated by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) and supported by the Department of Health.

The intelligence-led Operation Henry 2 is tackling illicit tobacco supplies in nine regions of England, over six months, using specialist tobacco detection dogs from Wagtail UK.

Detection dogs discovered concealed stashes of tobacco, with products hidden in various areas including voids in walls, in pieces of furniture and hydraulically operated floor concealments.

The seizure included counterfeit cigarettes and cigarettes not labelled with correct health warnings which cannot be legally sold in the UK.

David Lodge, head of West Yorkshire Trading Standards, said: "People who deal in illegal tobacco are more likely to encourage others, especially children and young adults, to smoke.

"All tobacco is harmful but the illegal tobacco market and in particular the availability of cheap cigarettes make it harder for smokers to quit and remain smoke free."

Anyone with any information about illegal tobacco is urged to call the Illegal Tobacco hotline, anonymously, on 0300 999 000.