Three vape shops in Brighton and Hove were among dozens of businesses raided by police in a crackdown on money laundering and other illicit activity.
Officers taking part in the wider operation found more than 100 wraps of class B drugs, illegal cigarettes and illegal working practices.
The South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) said that it was “a multi-agency operation targeting cash-based money laundering and disrupting serious and organised crime” across the region.
The regional operation was co-ordinated by SEROCU as part of the wider Operation Machinize, led by the National Crime Agency’s National Economic Crime Centre targeting cash-intensive businesses.
Police said: “Two vape shops in Hove and one in Brighton were visited by SEROCU officers and other partner agencies on Tuesday 18 March.
“From one of the shops in Hove, approximately 120 illegal tobacco products were seized.Nothing was seized from the other two. No arrests were made.”
Police were joined by trading standards officers, immigration enforcement officers and officials from the Department of Work and Pensions.
They targeted 11 barber shops and vape shops across Sussex, Hampshire and the Thames Valley as part of co-ordinated swoop.
Detective Inspector Emily Evans, from SEROCU, said: “Approximately £12 billion of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, according to estimates.
“This is usually smuggled out of the country or makes it way into the financial system via money laundering.
“Premises which tend to be used by organised crime groups in this manner include those which use cash extensively – barber shops, vape shops and nail salons.
“Money laundering can be linked to a myriad of other offences so a partnership approach is key to ensuring we can build an intelligence picture so that those who engage in criminal or civil offences can be held to account for their actions.”
During the visits across the south east
• illegal cigarettes worth £1,000 were seized by trading standards
• 100 wraps of Class B drugs were seized by police
• two prohibition notices were issued to owners of barber shops for unsafe fire practices
• one arrest was made by immigration enforcement in connection with illegal working
• one licence enforcement notice was issued by a local authority over business licence breaches
Investigations are under way into possible tax evasion, benefit fraud and planning-related breaches.
As well as in Brighton and Hove, the operation targeted premises in Oxford, Slough, Wokingham and Farnborough last month.
They need to cacth up with the fellow wandering George Street selling toacco out of a COOP shopping bag…. he is hard at work today.