Surrey Crimestoppers, Surrey County Council Trading Standards and Smokefree Surrey Alliance have joined forces to ask for your help in spotting fake fags and stamping out illegal tobacco and their many side effects including:

• increased health risks. All tobacco is harmful but cheap illegal tobacco products with no control over their quality or what goes into them can be even more dangerous. Contents can include very high levels of tar, nicotine, lead and other dangerous chemicals, with dust, asbestos and even rat droppings found in some.
• less incentive to quit. Easy access to cheap tobacco encourages people to keep smoking and smoke more.
• serious fire hazards, as illegal tobacco products aren’t often self-extinguishing, unlike legal products.
• funding serious organised crime. Organised criminal gangs target vulnerable people, including children, by selling cut-price cigarettes and hand-rolled tobacco. Gangs infiltrate our communities and can use the same routes for importing and distributing other drugs including cannabis and heroin. The money they make is also used by gangs to fund more serious crimes, such as people and arms trafficking.
• harming genuine retailers. Any retailer selling fake fags is undercutting those selling genuine products and taking criminal advantage.

Check out Surrey Crimestoppers' 'How to spot illegal tobacco' webpage so you know what smuggled, bootlegged and counterfeit tobacco can look like. For a safe, anonymous way of sharing any information that can help put an end to this trade call Surrey Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or report it online using the Anonymous Online Form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

Smoking is the single biggest cause of preventable illness in Surrey. Please help stamp out fake fags and help reduce smoking rates.