ILLEGAL tobacco and cigarettes with a street value of about £60,000 were seized in an early morning raid by police and trading standards officers.

In a joint operation they swooped on a house in Knaresborough and recovered 100,000 cigarettes and 70kg of rolling tobacco.

And although no arrests were made in connection with the haul further investigations are now underway to identify the source and prevent further supplies being distributed.

The intelligence-led raid took place earlier this month – on April 16 - as part of a new focus on the issue illegal tobacco, with trading standards teams working with health officials.

The haul is regarded as a large one and will be part of a wider assessment of the extent of the issue of illegal tobacco in the county.

“As well costing our economy in lost tobacco duty, smoking illicit cigarettes and rollups can be very dangerous” said Dr Lincoln Sargeant, North Yorkshire’s director of public health.

“Because their manufacture is completely unregulated they can contain products that make them an even greater hazard to health than regulated tobacco.

“In addition the packaging has none of the hard-hitting images and messages designed to remind people of the wide range of health harms smoking can cause that legal cigarette packaging now carries.”

The assistant director of the county trading standards department, Graham Venn, said: “We have a zero tolerance approach to the supply of illicit tobacco - and encourage the reporting of any illegal activity through the Citizens Advice Bureau on 08454-040506.”

He added: “We will continue to work with our colleagues in Public Health and North Yorkshire Police to actively reduce the amount of illegal tobacco products available in our communities.”