A canine crime-buster has been drafted to sniff out traders flogging illegal cigarettes, outlawed vapes and dangerous foodstuffs in the American-style candy stores blighting central London.
On her latest mission in bustling Edgware Road, Doris the dog unearthed a haul of illicit goods worth thousands of pounds.
In a series of surprise raids carried out with police and Westminster Council officers in November and December, the sharp-snouted three-year-old Labrador led the charge straight to two shops suspected of dealing in black-market goods.
At one store, Doris zeroed in on a stash of 500 packets of illegal cigarettes hidden from public view and uncovered a haul with a street value of £8,250.
Many packets bore familiar names like Winston and Marlboro but were missing the legal health warnings and proper labelling required in the UK.
Alongside the fake cigarettes were 150 single use vapes, now banned under UK law, ready to be sold to unsuspecting customers.
She also found more than 250 food products across two shops that are suspected of being illegal for sale in Britain.
Among the eye-raising finds were bottles of Shani, a berry-flavoured drink imported from the Middle East containing Calcium EDTA, a chemical not permitted in flavoured beverages in the UK.
Bags of Cheetos displayed for sale in the American-style shop were also sniffed out.
They had been made with Yellow 6, a colouring banned from cereal-based products in Britain.
Council teams say the combination of illegal vapes, counterfeit cigarettes and rogue snacks is becoming an increasing headache for local authorities, which is why they have employed Doris to sniff out dodgy goods.
Aicha Less, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for public protection, said: "Doris the dog detective certainly proved her worth in rooting out suspect cigarettes. The reality is there is no way of knowing what is in these kinds of products - while they will no doubt be sold at a cheap price, it is a pricey gamble on your health.
"With the support of police, our trading standards and environmental health food officers have been able to take hundreds of suspect products off the streets. Our job is to ensure shoppers in Westminster get what they pay for, and with Doris - the long arm of the paw - we will keep doing that."
