GB News has revealed exclusive access to a covert operation investigating the scale of Britain’s illicit tobacco trade.
Working alongside tobacco giant Philip Morris International, a team of former special forces operatives and ex-police officers carried out spot checks on convenience stores in Birmingham to test how easily counterfeit cigarettes could be purchased.
The undercover team was led by Will O’Reilly, a former Detective Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police and now consultant to Philip Morris.
Within minutes of beginning the operation, investigators were able to buy multiple packets of counterfeit cigarettes at the very first shop they entered.
GB News reveals exclusive access to a covert operation investigating the scale of Britain’s illicit tobacco trade
|GB NEWS
Fresh figures from KPMG reveal the problem is widespread, with the consumption of counterfeit and smuggled tobacco products in the UK holding at a two-year high.
Britain now ranks as the third-largest illicit tobacco market in Europe, according to the research.
O’Reilly told GB News: "In many cases, these cigarettes are sold as a genuine product.
"People think they're buying a contraband product, for instance this one purports to be made in Nigeria and it isn't.
"We find this this packet all over now and it's just a counterfeit product, but people think they're buying contraband from Nigeria."
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Around £3.15billion is lost in tax revenue from the Government because of counterfeit tobacco, with an estimated one in every four cigarettes consumed in the UK being illicit.
Some shops involved are not aware the products they are trading are counterfeits, but GB News witnessed others store them off-site which might be an attempt to avoid detection.
The People's Channel watched as undercover buyers entered a premises and ask for cigarettes, the shopkeeper then asked him what he would like.
She then leaves the shop and walks two doors down to a property which looks unconnected and opens the shutters.
Moments later she appears with a packet of cigarettes and walks back to her shop and sells them to the investigator.
The investigator revealed that the purchased product was new to the counterfeit market.
O’Reilly said: “At the base of each each pack now, under regulations, there is a track and trace code which is unique to each pack, so I can tell by scanning particular packs whether they are where it's a counterfeit code or not.
The undercover team was led by Will O’Reilly, a former Detective Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police and now consultant to Philip Morris
|GB NEWS
“This one says it's not a valid code, but it's a code that's not recognised, so this is a new counterfeit product.
“This is perhaps a new production run somewhere and it's made to look like it's Turkish with Turkish writing on it, but it's a counterfeit pack.
“Bought for £2.50, against the retail price of £16 or £17.”
At another shop close by, an undercover buyer discovers another packet of cigarettes not seen before, as well as one manufactured in a state-sponsored factory in Belarus.
In secretly filmed footage from the investigation, the shop showed the buyer a selection of illegal products sellotaped together like a catalogue.
The former Detective Chief Inspector told GB News: “Everyone locally will know that is a shop you can go and buy illicit products.
“You can see there the range of cigarettes that he had, there was a display there of probably a dozen or more different different brands that he would have in his stock, and everyone there had a price ticket on it.
“It's just it's rife and it's getting worse.”
Across Birmingham, legitimate stores are being hit hard by illicit activity. Last year, legal sales were down 14 per cent.
Shopkeeper, Avtar Sidhu, said it is unfair that thousands of law-abiding stores are taking the hit.
He said: “Margins are thin, times are tough and there's a huge amount of pressure on the consumer.
“You're trying to add that value message across but you’re having that footfall taken away from you.
“We're trying to play by the rules, buying all of our tobacco, all of those kind of products responsibly through legitimate channels and we can't compete against these businesses.”
Investigators were able to buy multiple packets of counterfeit cigarettes at the very first shop they entered
|GB NEWS
In Birmingham, the city council said it has removed nearly £7million worth of illicit vapes, counterfeit tobacco and other illegal products over the last 12 months.
However, the result of the private investigation suggests there is a large-scale problem facing authorities.
Much of the illicit market is understood to be run by organised criminal gangs producing, smuggling, and increasingly, selling the products in their own shops.
O’Reilly added: “These are disposable vapes, they've been illegal now since May to sell, but most of these were illegal before the disposable vape ban.
“The tank size should only be two mil, but this one's 24ml, that's 12x the legal limit and these are clearly aimed at children with some of these.
“Watermelon Ice, Red Apple Ice, Cherry Cola Ice Pops - the design of them is purely aimed at aimed at children.”
As well finding illegal vapes, some of the packaging on the counterfeit cigarettes is incorrect.
The former police officer said: “It’s such a poorly made outfit. We all know that Regal is a legitimate name of a cigarette, but you look at this, they've spelt it wrong, it's poorly printed and there's bits of loose tobacco under the cellophane.
“There's no markings on it, there’s no health warnings other than ‘Smoking seriously harms you or others around you’, which is the wrong spelling for what it should be.
“It's just poor.”
All the illegal products purchased are set to be tested and destroyed, and the findings of the investigation will be handed to the authorities.