Tobacco worth £300k uncovered in raid

Police discovered the so-called illegal tobacco factory in a property near the Felling Bypass

Tobacco worth an estimated £300,000 has been uncovered in a raid on a housing estate.

Officers also found packaging and equipment used to produce counterfeit goods at a property in Redgrave Close, Gateshead, on Monday morning.

Police estimated that if all the empty pouches were filled, they would have a potential street value of about £3.3m.

A 40-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of applying a false trademark to material and taken into custody.

Ch Insp Thomas Hart, of Northumbria Police, said profits from the sale of illegal tobacco were often reinvested into "more serious and organised criminality".

“By removing the profits from these groups and disrupting production lines of this scale, we take away the power and standing they have in the community," he said.

"It is important to stress that our efforts in this area don’t end here and we’d also encourage anyone who notices anything out of the ordinary or suspicious in their community to come forward with information."

The raid was part of Operation Vienna, a joint initiative with council trading standards' teams.

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