A Pontarddulais vape shop has been shut down for a third time after Trading Standards officers found illegal stock hidden on the premises.
World of Vapes, on St Teilo Street, was ordered to close for three months after Swansea Council officers visited earlier this month and discovered fake tobacco and vapes stashed in a hidden storage unit.
It is the latest blow for a shop that has now been closed three times in under a year.
The store was first shut in September 2025 as part of a city-wide crackdown that closed nine shops in a single operation.
It reopened, only to be closed again in February when officers uncovered more than £40,000 of illegal vapes and counterfeit tobacco — including stock hidden in the flat above. A shop worker later admitted multiple offences.
Now it has been shut a third time.
A second shop, Snoop Vapes on High Street in the city centre, was also closed after repeatedly selling fake tobacco to undercover officers over a two-month period.
Both closures were granted by Swansea Magistrates’ Court, which can extend a council closure to three months.
Rhys Harries, the council’s Trading Standards team leader, said the team was committed to tackling the illegal sale of tobacco and vapes — “often with sales to children.”
He said officers had powers to close shops after a visit, but needed the courts to extend those closures to three months.
He said the aim was to disrupt the trade and stop harmful goods reaching younger children.
“There’s more to come,” he added. “We have continued with our intelligence gathering and there will be more closures this year.”
The latest action follows a major operation in October 2025, when Trading Standards joined forces with South Wales Police to raid shops across the city.
Nine shops were closed in those raids, with more than £70,000 of illegal tobacco and vapes seized.
Swansea is among the worst-hit areas in the UK for the trade, having recently been ranked fifth in the country for illegal vape seizures.
Andrew Williams, the council’s cabinet member for development, said the authority was taking the sale of illegal vapes and counterfeit tobacco “very seriously.”
He said the Trading Standards team had made the issue a priority and gathered large amounts of intelligence on which shops had been selling illegal goods to consumers, including children.
He said the latest operation had been very successful in disrupting the trade, and he hoped it would send a strong message to other businesses that they had a duty to trade legally.
Trading Standards has confirmed that more shops will be targeted and closed as its intelligence-gathering and test purchases continue.
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