At Dodo’s Mini Market and vape shop on Endike Lane in Hull, Griff, a three-year-old brown and white springer spaniel, barks manically at a shelf of cough sweets and Mentos, his tail wagging in circles like a Spitfire propeller. Humberside police and Trading Standards officers have already found two bin liners full of counterfeit cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco in the ramshackle backyard, but they’ve called in the sniffer dogs in case there’s more.
Griff’s handler, Stuart Phillips, founder of Stu Phillips K9 detection services, combs the shelving unit with his fingertips until he locates two concealed screws. He removes them, pulls slightly against a magnetic catch, and a secret door swings open to reveal hundreds of packets of fake cigarettes and tobacco pouches. Carefully stacked
