10-08-2025
We easily bought illegal vapes and cigarettes across Wales, then we confronted the shopkeepers
We easily bought illegal vapes and cigarettes across Wales, then we confronted the shopkeepers
'Nobody has come to tell us to remove them'
Swansea shopkeepers we caught selling illegal nicotine products
(Image: WalesOnline)
"If this street could talk," reads the façade of a disused unit in St Helen's Road. The time we spent on the Swansea shopping street suggested the tale might not be a happy one.
Interspersed with the street's many fast food joints and barber's are six vape shops, all but one of which offered our undercover journalists illegal nicotine products. These ranged from disposable vapes — banned in June — to super-cheap packets of foreign cigarettes with no clear health warning.
When we asked one shopkeeper if he knew his products were against the law, he replied with a nonchalant half-smile: "Yeah. It's no problem."
Our first visit to St Helen's Road came earlier this year when Peshawa Zada, the then-shopkeeper at Bob Marley Vapes, sold us a Chinese-made vape for £10. This was before disposable vapes were banned across the UK, but even then its 10ml tank was five times bigger than the maximum. We also bought two counterfeit 20-packs of Benson & Hedges from him for £5 each.
Peshawa Zada, of Bob Marley Vapes
(Image: Conor Gogarty)
The shop was raided shortly afterwards by Swansea council, which said 23-year-old Zada had been hiding thousands of black market cigarettes and vapes above a fluorescent light fitting. In July he was sentenced to a year and 10 months in jail.
Our purchases at the Bob Marley shop were part of an investigation in which we found seven shops in Cardiff, Swansea and Pontypridd offering illegal cigarettes or single-use vapes that breached the regulations at the time. Now, two months into the ban on all disposable vapes, we have returned to St Helen's Road and found other shopkeepers flagrantly breaking the law.
In Vape City, the sale of illicit vapes could hardly have been more blatant. Their staggeringly low price, £1, was felt-tipped across an A4 sheet to draw customers to shelves of colourfully-packaged disposables.
Vape City shopkeeper answering questions from WalesOnline reporter
(Image: WalesOnline)
When we asked the shopkeeper if he knew they were banned, he said: "Yeah, I think so." He told us he had bought the vapes in January at £2 each and that since the ban he had been selling them at a £1 loss to get rid of them.
Asked if the council had visited since the ban, he replied: "No, nobody has come to tell us to remove them. Before June one lady from the council came but she didn't say anything, she just left some letters."
"I just have to sell them," he went on. "What should I do? I am already losing a lot of money."
A disused shop in St Helen's Road, Swansea
(Image: John Myers / WalesOnline)
Did he not care that he was breaking the law? "You know what, listen brother, honestly, I don't even understand the difference between the refillable ones and the disposable ones. They are the same nicotine, they do the same thing, honestly."
Environmental concerns were a major factor in the UK Government's decision to ban disposables, which damage ecosystems by releasing lead and mercury. Last year almost five million single-use vapes were littered or thrown away in general waste. The Government also said the ban could improve public health by "curbing the rise in youth vaping", as most children reported they favoured disposables.
The man behind the counter at Vape City promised to ditch the single-use vapes ("just come back tomorrow, you will see") but there was no such assurance a few doors down at Asia Vape.
WalesOnline challenges Asia Vape shopkeeper on sale of illegal cigarettes and vapes
(Image: WalesOnline)
At Asia Vape we spent £9 on a single-use Chinese 'lemon and lime' Hayati Pro Max vape which even before the ban would have been prohibited given its 10ml tank size. The woman at the till also disappeared into a back room to fetch us 20 cigarettes in Polish-language packaging, available for £7.50 — around half what a legal pack costs in the UK.
We asked her why she was selling cigarettes that did not even have an English-language health warning. "I don't know what is not allowed," she said. Why were the cigarettes concealed then? There was no reply from the woman, who answered a call on her mobile and retreated further into the shop.
St Helen's Road is also home to a vape business called Swansea Market, where the shopkeeper went into a staff room to get his hidden wares. He brought us a 20-pack of cigarettes branded 'Platinum Seven' — its only health warning printed in tiny lettering on one side — and charged just £5.
Swansea Market shopkeeper asks for illegal cigarettes back, moments after selling them to WalesOnline
(Image: WalesOnline)
Though it is not a recognised brand in the UK, more than £7m worth of illicit Platinum Seven cigarettes were seized by the Irish tax authority in a 2023 raid on a vehicle in County Louth. The pack we bought displayed the name of a firm which, according to Companies House, was based in London and run by a man from Tunisia before it was dissolved in late 2023.
When we challenged the Swansea Market worker, he told us it was "no problem" that the cigarettes were illegal. Then, realising we were filming, his demeanour became more hostile as he demanded back the packet he had just sold us.
He denied he had known the cigarettes were illegal and claimed they were from a friend who had been on holiday, adding: "I sell it for myself, two or three packages." Asked what country the product was from, he replied: "Iran. Everywhere."
Shopkeeper at Kubus Superstore
(Image: WalesOnline)
The same Platinum Seven brand was available at nearby Kubus Superstore, again costing £5 and again brought out from a hidden part of the shop. The shopkeeper did not appear to speak English so he called a colleague, who then emerged from the back room but did not respond to our questions other than swearing as he ushered us out.
Elsewhere on St Helen's Road, City Vape (not to be confused with the nearby Vape City) did not offer us any black market goods and neither did Bob Marley Vapes (on our most recent visit). But that was not the only street where we caught businesses breaking the law. At Snoop Vape Store, opposite Swansea railway station, the man behind the counter — in his early 20s at most — pulled a pack of 20 Benson & Hedges "Switch" cigarettes from his pocket and sold it to us for £5.
Shopkeeper at Snoop Vape Store, opposite Swansea railway station
(Image: WalesOnline)
Cigarettes in the same packaging, which showed a manufacturing address in Nigeria, were among the illicit products we caught two Cardiff shops selling in our previous investigation. Benson & Hedges told us the cigarettes were not only illegal in the UK but appeared to also be counterfeit.
When we asked the Snoop Vape Store worker if the shop was paying tax on the £5 cigarette packs, he replied: "I don't know, I am just training, my brother." With a wide-eyed expression of shock, he asked us: "Is that one illegal, brother?"
The shopkeeper suggested we ask our questions into his phone so an app could translate to his native language, but this failed to yield substantive answers. He did tell us he had been working in the shop for two days.
'Dead flies and asbestos'
Illegal vapes and cigarettes we bought from shops in Swansea
(Image: WalesOnline)
As well as being cheaper than legal brands, illicit cigarettes can be more dangerous. The Local Government Association has warned that some contain "human excrement, dead flies and asbestos".
When the UK Government announced the ban on disposable vapes, it said they had been "a key driver behind the alarming rise in youth vaping, with the proportion of 11- to 17-year-old vapers using disposables increasing almost ninefold in the last two years".
Reacting to the evidence gathered by WalesOnline, Prof Jim McManus from Public Health Wales said: "Illegal tobacco and vape products are unregulated and often contain harmful or toxic substances at levels that can be unsafe, posing significant health risks. We strongly advise people not to buy these products."
Swansea council, which brought the recent prosecution against Zada, told us: "The sale of illegal vapes and counterfeit tobacco in Swansea is continuing to be a priority for our trading standards team and successful prosecutions against shops selling these items have been carried in recent years. We have a number of ongoing investigations underway linked to a number of shops across the city that our officers have visited in recent months.
Kubus Superstore was among those on St Helen's Road that sold illegal products
(Image: John Myers / WalesOnline)
"Along with tackling the direct sale of illegal vapes and counterfeit tobacco in shops in the city, we are also working with police to prevent the distribution of these goods to stores and have recently carried out targeted stops of known vehicles in the city, confiscating large quantities of tobacco."
The Welsh Government said it had been working with trading standards to support enforcement against illegal vape and tobacco sales. Its spokesman added: 'We continue to raise awareness of the bans with businesses. We recognise that the problem of illegal vapes and tobacco is complex and affecting every community in Wales."
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Responding to the fake Benson & Hedges cigarettes on offer, the brand's public affairs manager Ian Howell said: "Insufficient funding and powers for enforcement agencies, combined with years of escalating tobacco duty, has contributed to the rapid growth of this black market. This is a matter we take very seriously and we'll continue to assist law enforcement, including carrying out undercover 'test purchasing' projects to identify unscrupulous retailers who are selling these unregulated products."
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