Peterborough shop “closed” to tackle organised crime

A Peterborough shop has been fully “closed” after it was found to have illicit products and suspected links to organised crime.

The Neighbourhood Support Team (NST) carried out a warrant at International Food Store, 41 Lincoln Road, Peterborough city centre, in November where they found:

• 683,400 cigarettes, 37.45kg of hand rolling tobacco, and 35 cigars – all of which were found to be illegal by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• £14,886.20 in cash, as well as large sums of foreign currency
• A substantial amount of Sildenafil tablets – commonly known as Viagra which is a prescription-only drug

A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering and released on bail until February.

The following week, a man in his 40s was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Sildenafil, in connection with the find at the store.

A search of the adjoining flat uncovered further packs of Sildamax tablets and illicit cigarettes. He has also been released on bail until February.

PC James Rice, from the NST, said: “While Sildenafil is not classed as a controlled drug, it is only permitted to be sold by pharmacies, which this shop is not.

“We have been working closely with Peterborough City Council, Trading Standards and Immigration Enforcement and found the shop was mishandling its waste, selling illicit cigarettes and had a suspected illegal worker. Concerns were also raised about underage sales of age-restricted products.”

The full closure order was served on the shop and flat above on Tuesday (31 December), following a successful application at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court.

The order, which is in place until 30 March, states both premises are closed to everyone except for emergency services and employees of Peterborough City Council and their agents. Those who live on the premises have until 10 January to vacate, otherwise will find themselves in breach of the order, which is a criminal offence that could result in imprisonment of up to three months, a fine, or both.

PC Rice added: “We applied to the courts for the business and adjoining flat to be closed due to persistent issues in the store around things such as the sale of age restricted products and other illicit items and non-duty paid products.

“Circumstances such as these are often a front for organised criminality and anti-social behaviour which has detrimental effects in our communities.

“We hope this latest action shows the community that we are committed to tackling organised crime and will continue to police this robustly through regular compliance checks and enforcement of the order.”

This work has been carried out as part of ‘Alliance’, which is a multi-agency campaign to regenerate Millfield and some of its surrounding areas by tackling criminality to make it an all-round better place for the community.

Anyone with information about the order being breached should report to police using the online reporting form or webchat service. Those without internet access should call 101.

Information about Alliance can be found on the force’s dedicated Alliance webpage.