One Google search will uncover operations up and down the country tackling illegal tobacco sales head-on. Covert captures and million-pound milestones dominate news headlines and show operations up and down the country intercepting sales throughout the year.

What do these operations look like on the ground?

One frequently used method may surprise you, as it draws upon technology that has been fine-tuned for over 40,000 years . Highly trained canines (dogs!) are often used by Trading Standards teams to sniff out illegal tobacco that is hidden or concealed.

We speak with Stuart Phillips, a multi-award-winning Search Dog Handler to discover the role that dogs play within the illegal tobacco world.

What is your role in illegal tobacco detection?

With illegal tobacco, my role is to support trading standards, customs, and the police to detect illegal tobacco. I do this by using specially trained dogs who detect the scent of illegal tobacco. You might think that my job involves simply letting the dogs search on their own, but it is so much more.

People think that when a search dog finds something that it has to sit down, bark or even freeze and it’s a job well done. This is actually not the case. All of my dogs are trained and handled by me, which is important on a raid. When I’m searching, I’m looking for the slightest change in my dogs’ behaviour, because that slightest change could be the difference between finding or potentially missing something. The relationship between dog and handler is key.

Have dogs always been used to sniff out illegal tobacco?

In my experience, this method has only really kicked off in the last 10 or so years. The reason for this is because in the past, illegal tobacco sales were a pretty simple operation – think a local shop selling under the counter. As time has gone on these sales have evolved a fair bit, especially with the growing links to organised crime. The money that some criminal groups can make off illicit tobacco can be comparable to sales of class A drugs. As you can image, more money translates to slicker methods of concealment, and that’s where the dogs come in!

What do the specialist search dogs bring to the illicit tobacco control table?

A good nose! The number of times that people on the ground say, ‘we wouldn’t have found that without the dog!’. Half the time, human search teams can only do so much. If you have a storage yard with 100 containers, a human would need to open them all, but with a dog you can simply screen them. Dogs are quicker and very efficient. This is due to the dogs’ olfactory system, which gives them an incredible capacity to smell and locate. Their capacity for odour detection has been reported to be 10,000 to 100,000 times more accurate than a human.

You must get this all the time, but: pet or colleague?

Well, although they are working dogs, they are also family pets. Our dogs are treated as part of the family, and I do everything to make sure they have a good life. I have always been a dog lover, and I couldn’t do what I do without a love for dogs. So, for me, yes: I work with them, but they are very much part of the family.

Back to work: how many raids do you assist with each year?

This year alone, I have actually worked on 121 raids within Operation CeCe. If anyone is new to the illegal tobacco world: Operation CeCe is a HMRC project which is being carried out by Trading Standards to disrupt illegal tobacco sales. This involves going into shops and detecting illegal tobacco. In short: I have assisted a lot!

What’s the strangest place you have found illegal tobacco hidden?

Well! Blimey, we find it under floors, in ceilings, crisp boxes, behind kitchen cabinets hidden deep within walls. When the dogs detect the scent, sometimes you are like really?! But we have to explore it. There is a phrase that dog handlers use, and its: ‘trust your dog’. It’s served me pretty well up until this point!

Why is this work so important?

So, for me, the important thing about tackling the illegal tobacco trade is not about revenues or costs, its more the criminality and implications of buying counterfeit products. You simply do not know what it is you are buying. In terms of criminality, I often think where is this money going? What is it funding? My fears are what is this money going on to do, and what other forms of criminality is this tobacco funding? This can include human trafficking, drugs and in the past, it has been linked to terrorism. I feel good doing this line of work as it potentially stops funding these additional areas of the criminal landscape.

What would you say to anyone using this site if they are thinking about reporting an illegal tobacco seller?

It is really important because no matter how big or small the information people have got, it’s a part of the jigsaw that helps Trading Standards crack down on illegal tobacco operations. Every little helps, really. Anyone with any information, I would urge you to report. No matter how insignificant it would seem, it would allow trading standards to take action and possibly halt illegal activity.