Sniffer dogs, have been helping Coventry Police and Council Trading Standards Officers to hunt down thousands of illegal vapes and cigarettes, during city raids.
The Council and Police’s local neighbourhood teams have joined forces with four-legged working cocker spaniels Sky and Louis - both are trained to sniff out hidden compartments of tobacco, vapes and money.
The tobacco detection dogs have been offering a helping paw as part of a crackdown at shops across Coventry.
The dogs helped sniff out illicit goods at five city centre premises and even indicated that there was tobacco behind false walls, inside furniture and inside vehicles, which officers eventually accessed to find the goods inside.
At one location a substantial amount of N2O, better known as Nox or Noz, was also seized and will now be investigated by the Police.
Each incident where illicit goods were recovered will be now investigated.
Councillor Abdul Salam Khan, Cabinet member for Police and Deputy Leader at Coventry City Council, said:
"Our Trading Standards team go above and beyond in their pursuit of illegal vapes and cigarettes, as is shown with this very successful operation.
“Hiring Sky and Louis, who did an excellent job, was a fantastic way of protecting the health of our residents and keeping local children safe from underage sales.
“With the ongoing help of partners, West Midlands Police we are very effective in dealing with this problem.
“Anyone who knows of retailers selling illegal goods, or selling age restricted goods to children, can tell our Trading Standards team about it via our online reporting form found by searching ‘Coventry Trading Standards’.”