Jailed: Dudley supermarket boss who made £400,000 selling counterfeit cigarettes
The boss of a Black Country supermarket who made an estimated £400,000 selling illegal cigarettes has been sent to jail.
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Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how the European Food Express supermarket in Dudley High Street had been equipped with secret compartments beneath the floor and inside walls in which to hide the stash.
Najibullah Azaksai was jailed for 34 months when he appeared before Wolverhampton Crown Court on January 15, having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess goods bearing a sign identical to a registered trademark and conspiracy to possess criminal property in July 2024.
Azaksai was one of five individuals charged following a raid on the European Food Express supermarket in Dudley High Street.
The group was found to be in possession of counterfeit and illicit cigarettes and tobacco products between August 2016 to December 2018 at a Dudley High Street shop premises called European Food Express.
The court was told that Azaksai, along with Sywash Mashkhaty, Sarwat Raouf, Seyed Taklimi and Zanko Fars Ismael, had been selling and possessing counterfeit and illicit tobacco products on multiple occasions, with boxes of cigarettes being sold for less than £3.
Some of the illicit cigarettes seized in the case could not be classified as counterfeit as they represented bogus brands that were produced and smuggled into the UK by organised crime gangs.
