Police officers seized 500kg of smuggled tobacco from a New Malden business park.
The goods were wrapped in Golden Virginia packets and had an estimated £180,000 retail value.
They were discovered at a unit on the Kingspark Business Centre in Kingston Road on Wednesday afternoon after police were tipped off.
Tobacco found inside the unit
Officers also found processing equipment and a heat sealing machine believed to have been used in the production of black market, hand-rolling tobacco goods.
Breaking News! We have have seized around 500kg of smuggled tobacco in New Malden today after a search, now with HMRC pic.twitter.com/NAMsbBRxCT
— Kingston MPS (@MPSKingston) January 14, 2015
No arrests have been made.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has taken over the investigation. Martin Brown, assistant director of criminal investigation at HMRC, said: “We believe this was a major plot to flood the UK with unregulated and fake tobacco.
“This illegal trade has a devastating impact on local communities, honest retailers having to compete with this underworld trade and taxpayers whose money should be going to fund the UK economy lining the pockets of criminals.
“We will not stop in our work to stamp out this form of crime and encourage anyone with information regarding tobacco smuggling to contact the Customs Hotline on 0800 59 5000.”
Got a story? Call the newsdesk on 020 8 722 6321 or email newsdesk@surreycomet.co.uk.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here