HARDWORKING sniffer dogs have been helping Coventry Police and City Council Trading Standards Officers to hunt down thousands of illegal vapes and cigarettes during city raids.
The council and police’s local neighbourhood teams joined forces with cocker spaniels Sky and Louis – both trained to sniff out hidden compartments of tobacco, vapes and money.
The detection dogs have been offering a helping paw as part of a crackdown at shops across Coventry.
The dogs helped sniff out illicit goods at five city centre premises – and even indicated that there was tobacco behind false walls, inside furniture and inside vehicles, which officers eventually accessed.
At one location a substantial amount of N2O – better known as Nox or Noz – was also seized and will now be investigated by the Police.
Each incident where illicit goods were recovered will be now investigated.
Coun Abdul Salam Khan, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for police, said: “Our Trading Standards team go above and beyond in their pursuit of illegal vapes and cigarettes, as is shown with this very successful operation.
“Hiring Sky and Louis, who did an excellent job, was a fantastic way of protecting the health of our residents and keeping local children safe from underage sales.
“With the ongoing help of our partners West Midlands Police, we are very effective in dealing with this problem.
“Anyone who knows of retailers selling illegal goods, or selling age restricted goods to children, can tell our Trading Standards team about it via our online reporting form found by searching ‘Coventry Trading Standards’.”
