Illegal tobacco and vapes in Carlisle raids
"One shop thought they could outfox the law with a false wall and secret compartment where they were passing the illegal tobacco and vapes through," a Cumbria Police spokesperson said.
Cumberland Council said: "Any non-compliant goods found during these operations are seized and destroyed."The public can play a key role in helping to keep illicit products off the streets by contacting Trading Standards with concerns."
The Home Office said unlicensed trade in such goods fuels organised crime and "undermines legitimate businesses".
Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says Josef Fritzl case made her ‘reject God'
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has revealed the case of Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl caused her to lose faith in God. Mrs Badenoch said she was 'never that religious' while growing up but 'believed there was a God' and 'would have defined myself as a Christian apologist'. But this changed in 2008 when she read reports that Fritzl had imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, in his basement over 24 years. Mrs Badenoch, whose maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister, told the BBC: 'I couldn't stop reading this story. And I read her account, how she prayed every day to be rescued. 'And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered. I was praying to have good grades, my hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn't miss something. 'It's like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman's prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.' But she insisted that while she had 'rejected God', she had not rejected Christianity and remained a 'cultural Christian', saying she wanted to 'protect certain things because I think the world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values'. During her interview, which is due to be broadcast on Thursday evening, Mrs Badenoch also said her tenure as Conservative leader was going 'well', adding her job was to 'make sure that people can see that we are the only party on the centre-right'. In an apparent dig at Nigel Farage's Reform UK, she said: 'There are pretenders. We're the only party on the centre-right, and we're the only ones who still believe in values like living within our means, personal responsibility, making sure that the government is not getting involved in everything so it can focus on the things it needs to look at, like securing our borders.' She went on to defend previous comments saying the fact she had worked at McDonald's made her working class, saying: 'I had to work to live. 'That, for me, is what being working class is. It's the lifestyle that you have. You have to work, to survive.' And she argued that parents who were 'worried about their children getting stolen or snatched' had created a younger generation that lacked the 'resilience' to deal with problems in life. Responding to figures suggesting a quarter of people aged 16-24 said they had a mental disorder, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I think they think they have a mental disorder, I don't think they all have a mental disorder.' She added: 'I'm not a medical expert so it is not my expertise on exactly what we need to do to get them into work, but we should be trying to get them into work.'
The Sun
9 minutes ago
- The Sun
Giant signs painted on Oxford street warn Londoners to get off their phones amid record high snatches
PEDESTRIANS in London's top shopping district are being warned to get off their phones by giant signs painted on the street – after theft rates soared to record highs. Electrical retailer Currys painted purple lines along Oxford Street to remind shoppers to step back from the kerb and keep their mobiles hidden from e-bike thieves. The move is modelled on the Tube's iconic yellow 'mind the gap' lines. It is part of a campaign to help drive down phone thefts on packed high streets. We revealed earlier this year how a phone was stolen on average every seven minutes in the capital last year. The thefts usually involve criminals on mopeds snatching phones straight from people's hands on busy pavements before speeding off. New anti-theft signage will also be installed on Oxford Street – the home of Marks and Spencer's and Adidas ' flagship stores – as part of the 'Mind the Grab' campaign. It has been backed by Westminster Council, the Metropolitan Police, and the charity Crimestoppers. Ed Connolly, the chief commercial officer at Currys, said: ' Phone theft isn't just about losing a device. It's frightening, invasive, and cuts people off from their loved ones, their money, and their daily lives. 'Enough is enough. It's time to draw the line on phone theft (with) a bold pavement marking we believe can make a real difference by encouraging people to step back from the kerb.' Westminster Council has granted permission for the study to be tried on one of the capital's busiest streets. Deputy leader Aicha Less said: 'This campaign is a great example of how we are working with partners to raise awareness about phone thefts and promote simple measures to stay safe in public spaces, such as keeping valuables out of sight and planning routes home in advance.' 1 Met Police seize 1,000 stolen phones in a week and arrest 230 people
The Guardian
9 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Border patrol agents jump out of rental truck and ambush people at LA Home Depot
US border patrol agents carried out a raid outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles on Wednesday, with officers jumping out of an unmarked rental truck and chasing and arresting more than a dozen people. Videos of the operation, and federal officials' statements boasting about the detentions, have raised questions about whether the US government was complying with a federal court order halting indiscriminate raids in the region due to evidence of racial profiling. That ruling, upheld last week by an appeals court, followed reports of Latino US citizens getting swept up in LA raids and accounts of undocumented people being targeted based on their appearance and whether they spoke Spanish. Clips of the early morning raid by Home Depot in the Westlake neighborhood, near MacArthur Park, showed masked, heavily armed officers jumping out of a yellow truck from Penske, a private rental company and people fleeing. Day laborers often gather outside Home Depot stores looking for work and have been subject to aggressive immigration raids in southern California. One day laborer present for the Wednesday raid told the Los Angeles Times that the Penske truck pulled up to the parking lot around 6.45am, with the driver telling people gathered in Spanish that he had work to offer. Someone then rolled up the back of the truck, and masked agents, including one in a cowboy hat, jumped out as people scattered, the witness said. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an email that agents arrested 16 undocumented people from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua. Border patrol and DHS spokespeople did not respond to inquiries about the arrest tactics and whether agents were targeting specific people. A spokesperson for Penske said in an email that it was aware of the videos, writing: 'Penske strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances. The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today's operation and did not authorize this.' The company would reach out to DHS to 'reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future', the statement said. 'It is deeply disturbing that the federal government will stoop to these levels to continue their campaign of terror against working Angelenos,' said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (Chirla), a California-based group that is part of the lawsuit challenging the raids. 'These are Angelenos looking for an honest day's living … What we see in the video looks like an assault on people's liberties, an assault on individuals that were standing there looking for a job, and a targeted operation that was in fact lawless.' Fox News published footage from inside the Penske truck, which was reposted by Gregory Bovino, a border patrol commander in California, who called it 'Operation Trojan Horse'. Bovino also posted footage of arrests, writing: 'Different day, different illegal aliens, same objective. We're on a mission here in Los Angeles. And we're not leaving until we accomplish our goals.' Bovino has previously faced scrutiny for misleading the public about an immigration sweep, in which he said agents had a 'predetermined list of targets', many with criminal records, but records later showed that 77 out of 78 people detained had no prior record with the agency, according to a CalMatters investigation. He also falsely claimed that a US citizen was arrested for 'assaulting' one of his officers, as the Guardian reported this week. Bill Essayli, the Trump-appointed US attorney for the region, also promoted the Home Depot raid on social media, writing: 'For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable.' Those statements have raised alarm among advocates as the US government is under court order restricting raids in the region. Essayli's spokesperson did not respond to inquiries, and a border patrol spokesperson declined to comment on Bovino's statements. In a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups challenging DHS arrests in LA, a federal court ruled last month the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in showing there was a pattern of officers targeting people based on factors including their race and ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, being present at specific locations, or doing certain jobs. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion An appeals court affirmed the ruling, arguing that the US government had not meaningfully disputed the conclusions that officers were relying on those discriminatory factors in an unconstitutional manner. Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said in a statement Wednesday that the organization was 'deeply troubled' by the Home Depot arrests: 'While we continue to investigate these incidents, the evidence available so far raises serious concerns that the federal government may be in violation of the federal judge's July temporary restraining order.' That order, Tajsar noted, prohibited agents from stopping and detaining people 'based solely on generalizations about how they look, how they speak, or where they are, including where they work' throughout seven counties in the region. 'As shown at every step in the case thus far, the government seems unwilling to fulfill the aims of its racist mass deportation agenda without breaking the law,' he said. Cabrera, of Chirla, said in recent weeks, immigrant communities have been able to move more freely with less fear of indiscriminate raids due to the court order. The Wednesday arrests have shattered that, he said: 'It seems to indicate the government do whatever they can do to cause panic and terror in the community.'
