THOUSANDS of cigarettes have been seized by police officers at a Weymouth store.

Officers attended alongside representatives from Dorset Council’s trading standards team on Tuesday, February 21.

When officers attended they seized 12,500 packets of cigarettes, as well as 2,000 packs of hand rolling tobacco - totalling 100kg in weight.

Additionally they seized 1,048 illegal vapes and 19 boxes of nitrous oxide. 

Weymouth and Portland Police said the offender would be dealt with by Trading Standards.

A spokesperson for Trading Standards said the raid formed part of an ongoing investigation under the work of Operation CeCe.

Operation CeCe is a nationwide initiative between National Trading Standards and HMRC. The collaboration focuses on the crackdown of illegal cigarette sales and, in its first year, saw over 13million cigarettes seized.

llegal tobacco products worth more than £7 million were seized during its first year of operation.