ILLEGAL vapes are flooding into seaside resorts as ruthless criminal gangs increasingly target the tourist trade, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
Just a stone’s throw from golden sands, our investigators visited ten vape stores and walked out with seven illegal e-cigarettes that flagrantly breach new laws.
Despite Bournemouth’s sunny facade the council seized more than 120,000 illegal vapes in a year Credit: AFP
Our reporter Ben Endley checked out the resort’s many vape stockists to see how widespread the trade in illegal products was – and our probe uncovered seven dodgy e-cigs Credit: Simon Jones
David Hunt, lead officer for tobacco and at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, told The Sun on Sunday: “These findings highlight what our officers deal with daily.
“CTSI and partner agencies encounter and disrupt the sale of illegal tobacco and vapes regularly, but the sheer volume of product and the incredibly organised criminal network that underpins the activity poses huge enforcement challenges.”
It comes amid a huge rise in black-market shops fronting for organised .
A recent report from the CTSI revealed that as many as HALF of all serve as fronts for money-laundering, human trafficking and the sale of illegal goods.
And the estimates £1billion in criminal cash is being laundered through high street stores every year.
In Bournemouth, the neon-lit vape stores sit alongside traditional gift shops.
The town is at one end of what Trading Standards has dubbed a “corridor of crime” along the south coast from Dorset to Sussex.
On Old Christchurch Road was an unnamed shop that simply displayed a Kurdistan flag above the door.
Inside we were sold a £17.99 Chinese-made Bloody Bar 60k vape, which claims to offer 60,000 puffs and contains 48ml of e-liquid.
The device — and many others like it — were outlawed in June 2025 and should have been stripped from the shelves immediately.
Since then vapes must be able to operate as a 2ml device, even if they have larger back-up tanks, under rules that also banned all disposable vapes.
In a shop called Vape/Phone, our reporter was sold two illegal IVG Savr Chinese-made vapes for £3.50 each, with the vendor boasting he had “got them cheap”.
Trading Standards experts analysed the vapes and confirmed they also exceeded legal capacity limits.
In January, Bournemouth Trading Standards shut down the Triangle Market and Kingston Market stores after a court found they were illegally selling tobacco and vapes.
But staff at the reopened Triangle Market had no issue selling us two 50g bags labelled as Golden Virginia tobacco for £5, despite it retailing in supermarkets for £46.40.
While no was on display in the store, the Turkish staff member rang an accomplice to bring supplies from an undisclosed nearby location which they handed over for cash.
The Vape/Phone shop sold The Sun on Sunday’s Ben Endley two illegal IVG Savr Chinese-made vapes for £3.50 each Credit: Simon Jones
In a shop called Vape/Phone, our reporter was sold illegal vapes, with the vendor boasting he had ‘got them cheap’ Credit: BNPS
Roofer Colin Small, 63, who has lived in Bournemouth for 40 years, said: “There are so many dodgy shops here. In the last ten years the place has just become a state. The presence of foreign-owned vape shops has made the town so much worse.”
Local mum Daisy Mitchell, 49, said: “I have 12-year-old twins and kids in their class smoke vapes — clearly they’re not buying them legally.
“I’ve been here nine years and Bournemouth has plenty of problems with homelessness and drugs, but it’s all got worse in that time. We’ve seen shops close then reopen as very suspicious businesses. There’s a lot of nail bars and barbers.”
Holidaymaker Alison Jacobson, 60, from Milton Keynes, said: “A lot of young people vape these days because they can’t afford cigarettes.
“I have children and grandchildren that vape. I think it’s disgusting if shops are selling illegal and dangerous vapes. You expect shops to following the law. Young people do it because it’s cheaper and they think it’s healthier, but who knows what is going into their bodies?”
Courier company worker Jason Lewes, 54, also from Milton Keynes, said: “I normally buy vapes in because it’s easier to be sure they are safe and legal.
“I’ve seen first-hand how many vapes are ordered online and sent through the mail. It’s not supposed to happen and I don’t think it’s legit.”
Bournemouth Council has tried to crack down on dodgy vape shops and between April 2025 and March this year it confiscated 967,940 cigarettes, 268kg of illegal of hand rolling tobacco and 123,370 illegal vapes, all with an estimated street value of £1,1million.
But weak enforcement powers mean even when a shop is caught selling illegal vapes, courts only have the power to close them down for three months.
And while buying illegal vapes is funding crime, experts warn it can also endanger your health.
Dr Opel Baker, a GP at the Mayfield Clinic in Brighton, explained: “Users often have no real idea what they are inhaling.
“While legal vaping products are subject to regulations governing ingredients, counterfeit devices may contain unknown chemicals, contaminants or nicotine levels far higher than stated on the packaging.
An unnamed shop with a Kurdistan flag in Bournemouth’s Old Christchurch Road which sold us a £17.99 Bloody Bar 60k vape Credit: BNPS
Our Ben enters the Triangle Market where staff sold us two 50g bags labelled as Golden Virginia for £5 Credit: Simon Jones
David Hunt told The Sun on Sunday: ‘These findings highlight what our officers deal with daily’ Credit: Supplied
“Some have been found to contain potentially harmful substances that have never been tested for inhalation, making them a significant public health concern.”
This year scientists at the University of Derby found “alarming levels” of dangerous metals in a batch of illegal vapes seized in a raid.
Toxicologists tested ten products and found chemicals such as copper, nickel and lead that could lead to severe long-term health conditions.
Dr Ali Kermanizadeh, a senior lecturer in toxicology, told The Sun on Sunday: “We found huge and often alarming levels of dangerous metals — chemicals that have no place anywhere near the human airway. Lead is harmful to everyone and every organ. It’s a neurotoxin.
“It can cause anaemia, and severe conditions such as heart disease and strokes.
“In some of the products, we found the nicotine content equivalent to smoking 200 cigarettes.
“These are not minor variations from legal products. They are in a completely different category of danger. We’ve found these products cause cell death. They cause huge amounts of inflammation.
“They can change normal cell function and cause DNA damage, and long-term they can result in the development of cancers.”
Alison Jacobson said: ‘I think it’s disgusting if shops are selling illegal and dangerous vapes’ Credit: BNPS
A Bloody Bar 60K vape, which claims to offer 60,000 puffs and contains 48ml of e-liquid Credit: The Sun
And there are other dangers besides health risks.
Straight-A student Clare, 15, believed vaping was harmless, but in March a shopkeeper offered her a £7 “special” vape with a stronger headrush.
Clare, from Blackpool, said: “I didn’t think twice about it, I just took a puff. Within minutes I knew something was badly wrong.”
Clare thinks she was sold a vape laced with , and blacked out. She woke up hours later, alone on the ground, in the dark, with her underwear missing.
She said: “For weeks afterwards I barely slept. I couldn’t remember what had happened. My imagination filled in the gaps with the worst possibilities. I became withdrawn, anxious and depressed.”
Clare has quit drinking and vaping, but said: “There are still questions I may never be able to answer about that night.
“But if telling my story stops even one teenager from making the same mistake, then at least something good will have come from the worst experience of my life.”
The counterfeit trade is not confined to vapes.
A new report by accountancy firm KPMG says a third of the 22billion cigarettes sold in the UK last year were fakes, while a third of vapers still use single-use devices, despite a ban coming into force last June.
It is illegal for businesses to sell vapes that are not refillable or rechargeable, with an initial fine of £200, then unlimited fines and up to two years in prison for repeat offenders.
All of the vapes we bought had a USB-C recharging port, but were priced so low that shop staff often still refer to them as “disposable”.
Nearly five million illegal vapes have been seized by local councils over the last three years, equivalent to three confiscated every minute, with a street value of £39million.
Staff at the reopened Triangle Market had no issue selling us two 50g bags labelled as Golden Virginia tobacco for £5, despite it retailing in supermarkets for £46.40 Credit: Simon Jones
A £17.99 Chinese-made Bloody Bar 60k vape, far right Credit: BNPS
-dealing, child sexual exploitation and systemic money-laundering have all been directly linked to the vape shops.
Now the is setting up a £30million organised crime unit to target illegal mini-marts and vape shops, which will face closures, fines and licence confiscation.
In April the NCA carried out a series of raids on barbers and shops linked to money-laundering and illegal working.
The NCA said 950 people had been arrested and more than £10million of goods were seized over the past 18 months. adding the new unit would help it target and disrupt more “high-harm offenders”.
Sal Melki, NCA deputy director of illicit finance, said: “This criminal activity makes our communities less safe and less prosperous.
“It undermines legitimate business, deprives public services of tax revenues, and fuels a range of predicate offences such as the drugs trade, illicit goods, trafficking and organised immigration crime.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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