CLUTCHING a handful of brightly coloured boxes, a teenager emerges from a glass-fronted shop and hastily stuffs them in his pocket before scuttling off down the high street.
It’s one of the few stores that isn’t boarded up on the once bustling high street in Newport – recently named the UK’s worst for empty units.
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Almost one in five (19 per cent) of all of its shops are boarded up according to a new report from think tank Centre For Cities.
In the Welsh city centre’s shopping district, 25 shops have been shut down in the past 22 months for flogging illegal vapes – some of which were found to contain drugs – and tobacco.
And it’s having a devastating impact on the community, with petrified locals telling The Sun they live in fear of the gangs peddling the criminal goods – while Trading Standards officers are fighting an “endless battle” to shut down lawless outlets.
Shop staff and residents say they’ve watched in horror as thugs battle with knives and batons in the street, while drugs are brazenly sold and cooked up in broad daylight.
Many traders on Commercial Street – the main high street – declined to comment altogether for fear of reprisals.
Some said they feared attacks or intimidation if they went on the record discussing their true feelings towards the gangs and their shops, with one claiming he had spoken out in the past and was told he’d be killed if it happened again.
A shop worker who insisted on being anonymous told us both he and customers are at the mercy of violent gangs peddling the illegal goods.
Holding out a couple of legal vapes, he said: “The problem is that we have too many desperate people, teenagers especially, who use the shops which not only sell banned vapes, but they put the old non-rechargeable ones on display – they’re not even hiding it anymore.
“They sell it to underage people – under 16s, under 18s, anyone who wants to buy it.
“I’ve heard and seen shops selling vapes which contain THC (cannabis) banned vapes, weed vapes, which I think they’re getting from the US.
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“Five or six months ago I got a dealer coming in here and asking me to buy his stuff.
“I don’t know what they were called but they were THC banned vapes, and I saw the same guy in a shop handing over packages, which I assume was the same thing.
“Most of the time the workers in the shops are forced to work there because they don’t have National Insurance numbers, so they work for cash in hand and are put to work for extra hours for less money because they can’t complain to their bosses who are exploiting them.
“That contributes to social unrest in the town.
“Uncertainty is what we are afraid of, as anything can happen in this town as there are too many gangs operating.
“We witnessed a brutal fight over some shops or vapes – literally they had deep cuts from knives or batons, we don’t what it was.
“The police came but they were too late.
We witnessed a brutal fight over some shops or vapes – literally they had deep cuts from knives or batons, we don’t what it was
Shop worker
“We reported the people – five guys and one female, who was also selling crack.
“The guys involved were also wanted on some sexual assaults and rape charges but, luckily they are behind bars now.
“It does affect our business… because they don’t buy the vapes from us because they can get them elsewhere.
“They sell other stuff that we don’t sell, like tobacco in large boxes and balloons (nitrous oxide).”
A ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes came into force in the UK on June 1 this year.
The shop worker added that the people running the shops and minimarts which have been shut down by Trading Standards simply move to a new shop, use a new name and relaunch their illegal activities, generating a harmful cycle.
‘Shameful’
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In October 2023 Newport council and Gwent Police launched Operation Firecrest to crack down on the trading of illegal vapes and cigarettes.
Since then there have been 87 seizures of illegal tobacco and vaping products in the city.
This included 26,856 illegal disposable vaping devices, 481,790 illegal cigarettes and 199.05kg illegal hand-rolled tobacco – equivalent to 199,050 cigarettes.
A recent BBC report claimed 19 shops in the shopping district have been shut down in the past nine months alone. Since 2023 that total is 25.
Steve Hay, one of the Trading Standards team responsible for the closures, told the BBC: “It’s shameful that this is happening.”
In October last year police also discovered a huge cannabis farm worth £2.1million in the former Wildings department store on Commercial Street.
The shop worker we spoke to claimed that in the ‘Pill area’ – a notoriously crime-ridden area of Pillgwenlly, at the end of Commercial Street – heroin and crack cocaine is openly dealt and cooked.
Earlier this month it was reported one Newport drugs boss made more than £500,000 after flooding the streets of Gwent with cocaine.
Jamie Webber, 35, of Buttermere Way, St Julians was sentenced to 10 years and four months in January for being part of an organised crime group which trafficked nearly 3kg of the class A drug in Newport, Cwmbran and Pontypool.
The gang used a drugs line and had 23 runners working for it, peddling cocaine throughout Newport and Torfaen.
‘I don’t feel safe anymore’
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On the main high street, shoppers admit they’ve noticed a change in the atmosphere, with one local resident admitting she now “absolutely hates it”.
Kayleigh Silcox, 31, who was shopping with her nieces and nephews, told The Sun: “I just don’t feel safe anymore.
“This is probably the first time in a long time I’ve actually sat in Newport centre and it’s just so different to how it used to be.
“You just don’t go out here on your own, and if you do always be on the phone to somebody, it’s just quite sad.
“All the shops are closing down, it just doesn’t feel safe now.
You just don’t go out here on your own, and if you do always be on the phone to somebody, it’s just quite sad
Kayleigh Silcox
“I didn’t realise what the vape shops were selling and why they were being shut. You can’t crack down on all the shops though.
“It is scary. The groups of people look so different to how they used to, there’s a massive safety aspect for us.
“Having nieces and nephews having to grow up here is frightening.
“You know the shops which are legitimate and which aren’t, but how do you relate that to a child? That they can go in certain shops but not others?
“My biggest fear is for the children being around this.”
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Mike Morgan, 85, comes to the city centre every day to feed the pigeons, who climb onto his hands to greedily eat the bread he offers.
Sitting outside the once grand, now crumbling, closed Westgate Hotel, near a vape shop on the corner, he said: “In my time people copied the film stars and everyone smoked cigarettes, not these vapes.
“With the landmines and steelworks there were 16,000 jobs here, but for the people starting at the bottom there is less money today.
“This place was buzzing with people when I was growing up, but look at it now. It is shocking to be quite honest.
“The Westgate Hotel here, MPs used to come and stay here, all the important people.
“Newport as a city is falling apart. I used to like a drink and walk home at night, but there’s no police here, have you seen any?
“It used to be buzzing but it’s dead now. I wouldn’t go out at night.”
Newport as a city is falling apart. I used to like a drink and walk home at night… It used to be buzzing but it’s dead now. I wouldn’t go out at night
Mike Morgan
The Sun has reached out to Newport City Council for comment.
Councillor Mark Spencer, Newport City Council’s Cabinet member for communities and sport, previously said: “The illegal trade of tobacco and vapes is harmful to our residents and those communities where it is taking place. We will not tolerate it in our neighbourhoods or our city.
“I would like to thank our trading standards officers for their continued fight against these criminals and the partners they work with including the police and National Trading Standards.
“Their dedication and commitment to stamping out the trade is having an impact and disrupting this criminal behaviour.
“Closure orders can only be for a limited period which is why the officers have been working with landlords. We are grateful to those who have taken their advice in relation to the type of tenants they have and urge others to be vigilant.
“We would welcome changes in the legislation which would strengthen the action that can be taken against those involved in the illegal trade and the premises they operate from.”
Temporary Chief Superintendent Jason White, Head of Neighbourhood Policing at Gwent Police, told The Sun: “Anti-social behaviour (ASB) and associated disorder is completely unacceptable. It has a negative impact on the quality of life of our communities and it won’t be tolerated in Newport and in Gwent, as a whole.
“Between April 2024 and the end of March 2025, we carried out an additional 7,000 hours of patrols in hotspot areas across Gwent, which led to an overall reduction in ASB.
“Our commitment to address ASB is ongoing and we’ve secured an additional £1million Home Office funding for this work to continue over the next year, complementing our existing patrols in hotspot areas, including parts of Newport, with an additional 9,000 hours’ worth.
“We’ve increased our neighbourhood activity, which includes a focus on ASB, as part of the Safer Street Summer Initiative (SSI).
“Our policing teams continues to carry out partnership work with Newport City Council, other organisations and agencies to ensure that all businesses and residents feel safe.
“Since October 2023, we’ve been working in partnership with the city council’s trading standards on Operation Firecrest to address the sale of illegal vapes and tobacco in Newport.
“We’ve recognised there are links between the sales of vapes, illegal vapes and illegal tobacco and criminal activities.
“Through intelligence gathering and working closely with the city council, which is the lead organisation for Firecrest, we’ve seized more than 1 million illegal cigarettes, 274.39kg of illegal hand-rolling tobacco and 34,000 illegal disposable vaping devices worth a combined total in excess of £2.6 million.
“We’ve also worked together for the closure of more than 80 commercial premises in Newport.
“When it comes to crime and anti-social behaviour, we’re guided not only by information gathered though investigations and patrols, but by information the public has provided through their reports.
“That’s why it’s really important people affected by these issues come forward and talk to us.”
