Sniffer dog detects illegal vapes from three North Ayrshire shops

By: Stewart McConnell, Local Democracy Reporter

In a major united approach, Police Scotland Ayrshire teamed up with North Ayrshire Trading Standards and a Consumer Protection dog unit last month, to help tackle the growing problem of illegal vapes, with three stores targeted in the blitz.

Boo – the hero of the day, is a Labrador/German Wirehaired Pointer – specifically trained to sniff out nicotine produce.

Five vape stockists across North Ayrshire were visited on 25 April.

Two Irvine stores and a Saltcoats premises were found to be selling illicit nicotine products.  These items were seized.

Some of these items were very well concealed – but were found in seconds by Boo and his professional dog handler.

Counterfeit vapes usually contain dangerously high levels of nicotine, and often do not meet UK standards – failing in child resistant packaging, leakage protection and other major health and safety flaws.

Some of the disposable vape products seized contained a nicotine equivalent of over 800 cigarettes – over 16 times the UK legal limit.

(Local Democracy Reporting Service)