Birstall police pursuit sees cloned van containing tobacco worth £150,000 stopped by officers

Police officers have seized tobacco worth more than £150,000 after stopping a white van on the M62 near Birstall.
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The West Yorkshire Police Roads Policing Unit (RPU) spotted the van on Monday morning.

Officers used a TPAC (tactical pursuit and containment) to follow and box-in the van, pulling it over on a slip road at Junction 27 near Birstall.

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The RPU tweeted: "Officers sight a van and following a TPAC the van was stopped. The van was on cloned plates and within was over £157,000 worth of tobacco."

The van which was stopped by West Yorkshire Police's Road Policing UnitThe van which was stopped by West Yorkshire Police's Road Policing Unit
The van which was stopped by West Yorkshire Police's Road Policing Unit

A police investigation into the large quantity of tobacco has been launched with West Yorkshire Trading Standards.

What is the road policing unit?

The road policing unit is responsible for the policing of the road network throughout the Force, an area of 2029 km2 with a population of approximately 2,108,000 people.

Within this area there are roads of all types including one of the busiest motorway networks in Europe.

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This network includes the M62 Trans-Pennine motorway; the highest and the most congested in the country.

As well as the M62 the unit also cover the M1, M621, M606, A1 and A1(M); a total distance of over 213 carriageway miles in some of the most challenging of environments.

Safer Roads Officers are part of a larger team of officers and operate from two strategically placed bases to cover the Force area; including the motorway network and to maximize the use of the resources available at any one time.

This co-location helps to facilitate effective relationships with local NPT and Response Commanders to jointly tackle local issues.