From: TheCourier.co.uk
By Jamie Buchan
A probe into underground tobacco sales has uncovered evidence of a booming black market trade in Perth which is putting young lives at risk and helping fund criminal enterprises like drugs and human trafficking.
Investigators believe organised gangs are flooding the city with fake cigarettes, as increased tax on high street sales leads to extra demand for contraband product.
The team of test purchasers, led by a former Scotland Yard detective, said they were stunned at how “incredibly easy” it was to buy illegal goods on the streets of Perth city centre.
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He said the teenage smoker was likely to have turned to an unauthorised supplier, because he wasn’t old enough to buy directly from shops. “Illicit supplies like this are the biggest source of cigarettes for underage smokers,” he said.
Mr O’Reilly said that customers had been driven to back street suppliers by the high price of legal cigarettes.
“In my experience, these products would be brought in by organised gangs and the money made from their sales could be used to fund other crimes, like drugs or human trafficking,” he said.
“This isn’t just a case of getting round the taxman.”
