Officers lift floorboards in Rugby shop to discover thousands of pounds of illegal vapes

In another successful joint op with Trading Standards, plans to sell thousands of illegal vapes and cigarettes in Rugby fell through the floor (almost literally) after we paid a visit to a couple of suspicious shops in Rugby last week.

The visits on Wednesday, 6 November were simultaneous, to prevent the two shops tipping each other off.

Both visits were going well, finding thousands of pounds worth of illegal vapes and tobacco.

Things took a peculiar turn when, in one of the shops, we noticed something a little iffy about the floorboards.

Lo and behold, the floorboards lifted straight up to reveal yet more illegal vapes squirreled away.

All in all we seized 1,357 packets of cigarettes, 78 pouches of hand rolling tobacco and 2,395 vapes.

We gathered lots of intelligence for further enquiries, so a good job all round.