Police have seized nearly £30,000 of illicit goods.

Officers from Cheshire's Eastern Protecting Vulnerable People and Exploitation team carried out an operation on Friday (October 24) targeting illegal products and immigration crime.

Joined by colleagues from the Foreign National Offender team and partners from Cheshire East Trading Standards, they visited a number of retailers as part of National Crime Agency's Operation Machinize initiative.

This included a follow-up visit to a premises in Congleton, where a concealment was discovered within a wall containing banned single use vapes and cigarettes.

In total, over 1100 packets of cigarettes, 3kg of hand rolling tobacco and over 50 counterfeit toys were seized, along with over 90 banned single use vapes as well as other non-compliant products with a retail value of around £28,000.

Detective Inspector Martin Caldwell said: "We work hard to tackle criminals operating in our communities and Operation Machinize demonstrates just some of the work we do all year round to keep our residents and vulnerable people safe.

"We have seen links to the sale of these illicit substances and organised immigration crime and modern slavery offences, which is why we are committed to doing all we can to identify those involved.

"Whilst was disappointing to see that some of the premises we had already visited were, again, choosing to sell these dangerous and illegal products, today's operation has demonstrated that will not just visit a premises and not return to take action against any further offences.

"We regularly pay visits to all our retailers, especially those who have previously offended, to ensure to no criminality is occurring- always taking action when and where we find that it has."

Around £28,000 worth of ilicit products were seized (Credit: Cheshire Police)

During the operation on Friday, the teams visited four premises on West Street in Crewe, with seizures conducted by both police and Trading Standards.

Officers also returned to a number of premises across the east that had been visited on previous deployments and were again found to be selling the illegal products.

A follow-up visit was conducted at a premises on Bradwall Road, Sandbach, that had been previously visited a week earlier, and a considerable number of illicit products were seized.

Despite already having been visited on this occasion, more even illicit cigarettes and tobacco was seized from the premises.

Banned vapes, illegal cigarettes and counterfeit toys were seized by police (Credit: Cheshire Police)