The illegal tobacco trade is rife in Britain. Nationally, Operation CeCe has stripped 33 million illegal cigarettes and 800kg of hand-rolling tobacco from shelves in the last year, with a street value of nearly £24 million…Yet HMRC claims the black market is shrinking. Its latest estimates put the tobacco tax gap at just 14.2% in 2024/25, supposedly the latest step in a two-decade decline. Cancer Research UK estimates smokers got through 28 billion cigarettes in 2024, while HMRC records show only 14 billion cigarettes were cleared for legal sale in the same period. Test purchasing found 54% of independent retailers visited in Makerfield are selling illegal tobacco.