On the same week that the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is in the Lords the Home Office has promised action on a UK-wide crime network employing asylum seekers in mini-marts to sell illegal vapes and cigarettes. Joined up government…
The BBC has published a major investigation on a Kurdish crime network which sells mini-marts, barbershops, and car washes to illegal workers using “ghost directors” who put their names to official paperwork. The BBC reports: “One man told us weekly takings from illicit tobacco at his shop could be ‘sometimes, up to £3,000.’” Imagine the profits once everyone born after 1 January 2009 is prohibited from buying cigarettes legally…
The generational smoking ban is set to balloon an already extremely healthy black market which has grown out of high tobacco taxation and successive bans. The latest development in the Bill is another incoming ban on nicotine pouches. Should improve margins for the gangs…
Shabana Mahmood told the BBC: “Illegal working and linked organised criminality creates an incentive for people to come here illegally. We will not stand for it.“ Should have a chat with Wes about incentives…
