Thousands of pounds worth of illegal cigarettes were seized in a series of morning raids on Manchester Road corner shops and flats.

Police said tobacco was stashed in a chest freezer, in suitcases and stacked on the floor of a toilet.

The operation saw around a dozen police officers go through the doors of shops Morya’s Market, Kubus Polski Sklep and the Zabka Polski Sklep shortly after 10.30am.

Officers also raided flats in Ponting Street and Alfred Street.

PC Nick Finning, who planned the operation together with Swindon Borough Council’s trading standards department, said the raids followed reports of someone falling ill having smoked tobacco bought at one of the shops.

“We receive a lot of complaints about illicit tobacco being sold in some of the shops and we’ve had complaints from some people it’s made them ill to the point where they’ve had to go to hospital,” he told the Adver at the scene of one raid.

“As a result we’ve gathered our intelligence, done test purchases and built up the information we needed.

“Trading standards have obtained warrants for some of the residential addresses linked to the shops. We’ve executed those and had three very good, positive finds.”

Nationally, it is estimated that nine per cent of cigarettes and a third of hand-rolling tobacco sold in shops is counterfeit or non-duty paid.

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Tobacco piled high in one of the raided flats Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

PC Finning warned: “The immediate risk of harm is the fact we don’t know what goes into [the cigarettes]. I appreciate smoking isn’t healthy anyway, but they’re not making them with a health-conscious mind. They’re just making them with anything to make some money.

“Obviously at the moment we’ve got the NHS struggling, there’s a huge cost and this is denying the UK purse of funds. That money could be ploughed into schools, hospitals, the things that everyone wants yet we’re not getting that.”

The problem is rampant across the country, with Swindon not immune from the problem.

In June, police applied to the courts for a closure order on a Havelock Street newsagent’s shop. Two raids uncovered £9,400-worth of illegal tobacco, including cigarettes stored in a Hollywood-style hydraulic lift built into the floor of a back storeroom.

In a statement put before the court in June, Peter Jones of the Swindon Borough Council trading standards team said: “The illicit tobacco trade has links to various knock-on effects within our communities.

“Illicit tobacco products are often available from a range of sources within local communities at cheaper prices undermining the effectiveness of taxation, making it harder for smokers to quit and undercutting the process of legitimate retailers and making it easier for children to start smoking and enabling them to become addicted at a young age.”