Busting the tobacco bandits with Boo the dog

Boo doesn't know the difference between legal and illicit tobacco.

She just knows how to find it.

The five-year-old German Wirehaired Pointer Labrador Cross is one of the best tools Trading Standards teams have in sniffing out goods which shouldn't be sold.

Today, she's joining them on raids across Falkirk, where officers have been tipped off about two shops that are selling fake cigarettes.

And with Boo's help, they soon find out that their information was correct.

We joined enforcement teams on one of their operations to take unregulated tobacco off the streets.

There's no-one in the first shop we visit, apart from the man behind the counter.

As the Trading Standards officers identify themselves, he claims he doesn't know anything about illicit tobacco.

But Boo quickly gets to work, and within just a couple of minutes is alerting her handler to what appears to be a box of M&Ms under the counter.

A quick inspection reveals it is in fact filled with boxes of illicit cigarettes.

Boo is rewarded with her tennis ball, before heading into the storage room at the back of the shop.

She also reveals a gym bag full of illicit products, and nudges her handler to a car parked outside, with several packets of cigarettes stashed in the boot.

Although this raid was relatively straightforward, Boo's handler tells us retailers are trying to evade them in increasingly creative ways.

He explains: "We are now coming up against significant concealments, electric magnets, hydraulics lifting things from the floor, coming down from the ceiling, false walls, false floors, vehicles.

"If we can't see it, we can't find it, but the dogs know it's there".

The illicit tobacco trade is a lucrative business.

One of the Trading Standards officers tells us shops can make as much as £20,000 a week selling the products.

Which explains why some are prepared to go to such extreme lengths to hide them.

We can't even identify Boo's handler, because retailers have been known to put bounties on sniffer dogs disrupting their business.

As we arrive at the second shop, a woman working there tells our cameraman he can't come in.

Instead, we watch through the window as Boo repeatedly leads her handler to a row of fridges.

A stash of tobacco is finally discovered in empty crisp boxes stacked on top.

Between the two sites, around 5,000 illicit cigarettes are seized.

What Boo's showing us is one part of a growing problem across the UK.

To tackle it, Trading Standards and HMRC launched Operation CeCe in 2021.

Local enforcement teams have the powers to seize illegitimate products, and issue notices.

HMRC will then decide whether to fine retailers either £2,500, £5,000, or £10,000.

And it has had a big effect. In 2020/21, 63,000 cigarettes were seized across Scotland. In the 12 months to April 2026, officers are expecting to have confiscated two million.

In 2026 alone, Boo and her Springer-Cocker spaniel-cross colleague Rosie have been involved in operations to uncover 1.5 million cigarettes.

The officer we went out with described the issue as an "epidemic".

He said: "It's becoming quite a significant problem throughout the United Kingdom, not just in Scotland. Shops are popping up on a more frequent basis now and, unfortunately, it's becoming a real problem in most communities."

While HMRC looks to crack down on those evading paying duty, there is also a real concern about the safety of the illicit products.

In 2010, the European Union introduced Reduced Ignition Propensity (RIP), designed to cause cigarettes to self-extinguish when they are not being smoked.

Illicit products do not contain those enhanced safety features, meaning one left unattended is more likely to cause a fire.

Customers can easily identify unregulated goods. They may be in colourful, branded packets, and lack safety warnings and images.

In the UK, tobacco products must be sold in plain packaging.

Since the launch of Operation CeCe, more referrals have been made in Scotland than anywhere else in Great Britain.

The first penalties were issued in January 2024, and since then, 230 notices have been handed out in Scotland, from 20 local authority areas.

This is a big criminal business.

But as the officer explains, for Boo and her doggy colleagues all that matters is "find the tobacco, get their tennis ball".