Eight thousand pounds-worth of illegal tobacco has been found, concealed in the wall cavity of Swansea shop.

The amazing discovery was made thanks to Cooper, a new tobacco search dog, trained by Stuart Phillips of Pembrokeshire based B.W.Y Canine Ltd.

Cooper is a Fox Red Labrador who has undergone 6 months of specialist training, to assist Trading Standards, Police and even Her Majesty's Revenue & Csutoms to locate illegal tobacco products.

During an operation led by Swansea Trading Standards, Cooper and his handler and trainer Stuart Phillips made the discovery during the inspection of a shop in Swansea. His handler Stuart explains, "whilst searching the back store room of the shop, Cooper tried to squeeze himself under some shelving that was loaded with soft drinks and cans of beer. Once Cooper had squeezed half of his body under the shelving he just froze. It was at this moment that I knew he had found something. After a few minutes of investigating, we found a wall panel behind a slab of beers that moved and we were then able to see cigarettes and tobacco inside the wall cavity".

Cooper had found 14,860 illegal cigarettes and 3.2Kg of hand rolling tobacco, all worth an estimated £8000.00

This amazing seizure would not have been possible without Cooper, who has only be operational for a couple of weeks. This was Coopers first major find and his trainer Stuart and Officers from Swansea Trading Standards were over the moon with new kid on the block, Cooper.

www.bwycanine.co.uk