How sleepy English Riviera town became ‘counterfeit capital’ where £5 cigs knocked up by ‘slaves’ are flogged to kids

SURROUNDED by shelves of sweets and colourful vapes, a young woman in tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt chats to a caged cockatiel as she waits patiently for a shop assistant to appear.

She’s already placed her order – a £5 pack of contraband cigarettes, illegally made in factories across the world, Europe and even in the UK – and the shop worker has gone to an upstairs storeroom to bring them down.

A packet of fake cigarettes bought from a high street shop[/caption]

Shops in Devon have been forcibly closed for selling contraband cigarettes[/caption]

Local Polina Bradshaw is unhappy with the illegal tobacco being sold in the town[/caption]

The illegal vapes and cigarettes are often made in factories by slave workers[/caption]

The illegal produce is bought into the UK town as part of a highly organised operation run by gun-toting gangs from Dubai and Belarus – who are also linked to people trafficking and modern slavery.

The lawless operation isn’t run from a backstreet shop, it’s hidden in plain sight against the backdrop of one of the prettiest areas of the UK – Torbay, dubbed the English Riviera, encompassing the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.

Typically, the gangs behind the shops employ illegal immigrants, with local trading standards officers and the police fighting a never-ending battle to shut down operations with court orders.

Speaking to our reporter outside the shop the customer, who works as a care worker, showed us a packet of cigarettes.

She told The Sun: “I’ve found any of the vape or minimarket shops run by non-British people will sell these fake cigarettes, you just ask for the £5 fags.

“I’m buying them for a friend and wanted Richmond, but they only had Lambert and Butler and Bensons and Hedges, so he went upstairs and got these.

“I’ve had some really bad ones before which gave me a bad chest infection, sometimes they’re really strong, and sometimes they’re not, and you can get good ones, it just depends on the pack.

“You can tell by looking at them they’re not real, and when you open the pack you can smell it. When you light one it has a distinctive smell. My mum can tell straight away if I’m smoking a fake one in the house and kicks me outside to smoke.”

Asked whether she was aware that the crime gangs who supply the cigarettes may also be linked to people trafficking, she adds: “I do feel bad that they’re employing illegal immigrants as slaves and that I’m contributing to it, but they’re so cheap compared to legal cigarettes at £15 for 20.

“They’re pretty careful about who they sell to; you wouldn’t get served wearing trousers and a smart jacket, but if you came back tomorrow dressed in a pair of Nike tracksuit bottoms you would.”

Sniffer dogs are used in the recent raid by Trading Standards[/caption]

Fake tobacco and vapes seized in the Devon raids[/caption]

The Torbay coast is a mecca for tourists[/caption]

A recent operation by Heart of the South West Trading Standards and Cornwall and Devon Police saw four shops shut after Plymouth Magistrates granted closure orders.

It followed a raid in which officers seized 333 packs of cigarettes, 119 pouches of tobacco and 266 vapes with a street value of over £7,800.

The orders were issued after police had issued warnings to the owners to stop trading in illegal goods, which went unheeded. They last for three months, unless an extension is issued.

Three of those shut were in Paignton, a historical seaside town which attracts up to five million tourists every year thanks to its pretty beach and bustling streets, which are home to many independent businesses, including greengrocers, a record shop and a number of cafes.

I’ve had some really bad ones before which gave me a bad chest infection

Illegal cigarette buyer

Trading standards officer Melanie Walker told a recent council meeting: “There is no other location that has as many premises involved in the illegal sale of tobacco as Torbay.”

She said the racket has links to organised crime, modern slavery and even involved guns and drugs.

One genuine tobacco and vape shop owner, who asked not to be identified said: “Most of the other shops here are selling fake cigarettes and vapes, and it means we’re all tarred with the same brush, so yeah it makes me angry.

“They sell to kids, and apart from putting people’s health at risk with that, some of them are selling cocaine and cannabis, whatever they can to make money. When they’re shut down, they just rent somewhere else and use a different name and carry on doing what they’re doing.

“It makes me furious. I just got a bill for corporation tax for £1,700, the shop rates are high, and I could just go to Spain, buy tobacco for £20 a pouch and sell it on for £50 all day long, but I don’t, so why should they get away with it?

“They’re employing illegal immigrants and paying them very little, if anything. It’s outrageous that the council can’t do more and shut them down for good.”

Fury at illegal shops

Tattoo shop manager Shelley Barton is furious with the illegal trades booming in her town[/caption]

The fake cigarettes are designed to look similar to ones sold legally[/caption]

Other traders in the main shopping street, Torbay Road, share his fury.

Misfits tattoo shop manager Shelley Ballon, moved to Devon from New Zealand.

She said: “The centre has gone downhill over the past few years because of inflation. A normal person can’t afford to open shops here now, so it’s full of vape shops and Turkish barbers.

“There’s a shop on the high street, which was a craft shop but another vape shop opened there a couple of weeks back.

“There’s another minimart which has opened with a barber inside it, while another minimart was shut down the other day. I know it’s the changing face of the high street, but we don’t want it changing into this.

“I hate it. The fact criminal gangs are behind it makes me feel offended about the whole thing – I feel offended for Britain to be honest. We came here 11 years ago and had to jump through hoops and spend thousands on visas, whereas the people who run these shops just come here and start trading illegally. It’s ridiculous.

“I feel sorry for the genuine traders.”

According to the National Crime Agency gangs use Turkish barber shops for money-laundering, using them to enter cash into the financial system, mixing legitimate funds with criminal profits.

Polina Bradshaw, a 46-year-old piercer who’s lived in the town for 20 years, said: “We’re always seeing places get raided and then shut down, there are too many vape shops here and new ones opening all the time.

“I know there is also a problem with drugs in the town, but it’s concerning to hear guns are involved too.

“Paignton is a lovely town, but it seems to have gone downhill a bit since these shops started opening up, as well as all the Turkish barbers. They don’t seem to have many customers when you look inside, while the barber who’s worked here for 20 years is struggling.”

Unsafe streets

Mum Leah Beattie says she doesn’t feel safe walking around town at night anymore[/caption]

One of the shops closed down for selling the contraband cigarettes, tobacco and vapes[/caption]

Residents are also witnessing their thriving town changing, and many don’t feel safe walking the familiar streets anymore.

Local mum Leah Beattie, 26, said: “More often than not there’s police surrounding the vape or phone shops, it’s been like that for a few years.

“Paignton has definitely changed from when I was little. When I was 11 or 12 my mum was happy for me to go out with a friend, but I wouldn’t let my kids do that. Sometimes you see people going home from a night-out at 9am, and even though I’m 26 my mum wouldn’t be happy for me or my older sister to go out here at night.

“It just doesn’t feel as safe as it once did.”

As The Sun reached the end of the high street, a street warden chased after a man carrying a brand new green circular tent with tags on, and accused him of stealing it from a shop, before snatching it from his hands and shouting at him to get out of the town.

There is no other location that has as many premises involved in the illegal sale of tobacco as Torbay

Melanie Walker, Trading Standards officer

But shoplifting is the least of Paignton’s problems.

Fake tobacco and vape products mimic real brands, and what’s actually in them is unknown.

The counterfeits also lack the self-extinguishing feature which stops genuine cigarettes continuing to burn if the smoker falls asleep and have been the cause of a number of house fires.

Trading standards officers, often working alongside police with detection dogs, find stashes of fake cigarettes, tobacco and vapes in vehicles, hidden compartments behind walls, under floorboards and upstairs flats.

While the products are often mass-produced in countries like Dubai, Belarus and Iraq and smuggled into Britain, other factories across Europe and closer to home in the UK have recently been discovered.

A recent update on illicit tobacco and vapes, from Torbay Council, stated: “Intelligence suggests these criminal supply chains behind the supply of illegal tobacco are linked to other forms of crime, including firearms, drugs, modern slavery, grooming, people trafficking, and illegal immigration.”

European seizures

A mountain of tobacco seized in the Walsall raid[/caption]

Last month Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Palermo uncovered one of the largest illegal cigarette production facilities in Europe.

The factory, located in Stornara, was equipped for large-scale production, with the capacity to produce up to two million cigarettes a day. The estimated value of the site was over €1.3 million.

Searches were conducted across the regions of Apulia and Sicily, targeting the illicit logistics network behind the facility.

The police found 45 pallets of cigarettes weighing around 13 tonnes, 165 bags of shredded tobacco, and 134 containers of packaging materials bearing counterfeit logos of well-known tobacco brands.

In March, police and Trading Standards officers in Walsall raided one of the biggest counterfeit operations in the UK, worth around £50 million.

They discovered 23 bin liners containing over 500kg of processed tobacco, 1,000 packets of hand rolling tobacco, 3,000 cigarettes and counterfeit duty stamps and packaging.

These goods would have been later packaged at an illegal tobacco factory ready to be distributed across the country, and likely to be sold by modern day slaves in high streets like Torbay Street in Paignton.

Torbay Council, Devon Fire Service and Trading Standards were all contacted for comment, as well as two named councillors, but no reply was given, despite several emails with Torbay Council press office.