Don’t mention taxes

Organized criminals are targeting Wales with illicit cigarettes because of a lack of investment in enforcement, according to a BBC Online story quoting a senior investigator.

Clive Jones of Powys Council Trading Standards said tobacco control strategies would be undermined unless central enforcement were introduced.

New figures were said to show that about 150,000 illicit tobacco products had been seized in Wales since 2013.

Jones said the threat was that Wales would become a dumping ground for criminals involved in the illegal trade in cigarettes – that criminals would see Wales as an open door.

And this presented a challenge to the Welsh Government.

“It’s great having tobacco control strategies but the enforcement arm of that needs to be in place, and if it’s not it completely undermines the wider strategy,” said Jones.

Meanwhile, Suzanne Cass, chief executive of Ash Wales, said the Welsh Government should back the antismoking charity’s plan to tackle the illegal trade via a central communication and enforcement program.

And Steve Wilkins, a former Dyfed-Powys police detective chief superintendent who is now anti-illegal trade operations director at Japan Tobacco International was quoted as saying that there were “vast amounts” to be made from illicit tobacco.

“It is the commodity of choice for organised crime because the profits are high, the chances of getting caught are low and the actual sanctions are very, very low,” he said.