Kent Police says 13 Maidstone town centre businesses were closed or evicted in six months, with nine arrests and cocaine, cannabis and cash seized in the raids.
Thirteen businesses in Maidstone town centre have been closed down or evicted in the past six months after a run of police warrants aimed at organised crime, Kent Police says.
Nine people have been arrested. Officers seized illicit tobacco, cocaine, cannabis, cash and drug paraphernalia during the visits.
The force published the figures on 17 September. The statement gives no street names, business names or dates for the individual warrants. Nobody is named, and the statement does not say whether anyone has been charged. An arrest is not a charge or a conviction.
What the police statement says
Neighbourhood officers have been “ramping up their efforts to disrupt organised criminal activity in the town centre”, the force says. The warrants targeted businesses suspected of illegal activity and of selling illicit tobacco and counterfeit goods.
According to the statement:
- 13 businesses have been closed down or evicted from their premises in the past six months
- nine people have been arrested in connection with the work
- officers found and seized “a large quantity of illicit tobacco, cocaine, cannabis, cash and drug paraphernalia”
- some items were tucked away in secret hides, or stored away from the shop itself
- some cigarettes were allegedly being sold out of vehicles in town centre car parks
The closures and evictions came “with the help of partners such as Trading Standards”, the force says. Kent County Council runs Trading Standards in Maidstone.
One number in the statement does not match. The body of the release says 13 businesses. The quote from the beat officer, PC Tom Cunningham, says officers have “shut down or evicted 14 businesses”. We have reported both figures as the force published them.
PC Cunningham said: “We’ve been looking into shops in the town centre and building intelligence to identify the businesses that are linked to organised criminal groups and selling illicit and counterfeit goods. These products put members of the community at risk, and we are being proactive in finding these items and removing them from our town centre and holding those responsible to account.”
He added: “As we’ve carried out our enforcement, these businesses have been adapting to try and evade us, however, we’ve carried on adapting ourselves and as a result we’ve shut down or evicted 14 businesses and arrested several people.”
Not the first sweep of these streets
Maidstone’s town centre shops have been raided for illicit tobacco before, and the earlier operations were announced with more detail than this one.
On 17 August 2022, Trading Standards and the Maidstone Town Centre Task Force inspected four shops in Week Street, Lower Stone Street and Knightrider Street. They seized:
- more than 15,000 cigarettes
- almost seven kilos of rolling tobacco
- 1,025 vapes
- more than 1,300 counterfeit items from one business, including phone accessories, watches, jewellery and clothing
Some of the tobacco had been hidden in bins behind the premises, the county council said at the time.
In September 2024, one of the biggest tobacco operations Kent had seen covered five shops across Maidstone, Sittingbourne and Dover. Trading Standards, Kent Police, HMRC and three detection dogs seized 153,200 cigarettes, 75.5kg of hand-rolling tobacco, 163 vapes and 160 packets of shisha. Officers took £10,000 in cash from a shop in Maidstone. One stash sat behind a tunnel that officers had to crawl through to reach it.
The new statement’s mention of “secret hides” fits that pattern. What is new is the scale of the closures: the earlier releases talk about seizures, not about shops shutting.
What the crime figures show
The police.uk open data cannot identify the warrants or the businesses, but it does show the background they happened against. The figures below cover recorded crime within a mile of the centre of Maidstone, which takes in the whole town centre and the streets around it.
Shoplifting recorded within a mile of the town centre, by month:
| Month | Shoplifting | Drugs offences | All recorded crime |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | 55 | 39 | 465 |
| March 2026 | 64 | 15 | 498 |
| April 2026 | 68 | 28 | 575 |
| May 2026 | 79 | 6 | 543 |
| June 2026 | 59 | 18 | 557 |
| July 2026 | 50 | 17 | 561 |
Source: police.uk street-level crime data, one-mile radius from the town centre. July is the latest month published.
That is 375 shoplifting offences in six months, and 123 drugs offences. In July, the latest month, 561 crimes were recorded in that mile. Violent and sexual offences were the largest group at 202, then anti-social behaviour at 121, then shoplifting at 50. Fifty-one of July’s crimes were mapped to “on or near Parking Area” and 29 to “on or near Shopping Area”, which is how police.uk labels incidents in car parks and shopping centres rather than a named street.
The six months the police statement covers run to mid-September. The published data stops at July, so it cannot yet show whether the closures changed anything.
The town centre order returns on 29 September
The police warrants are separate from the borough council’s town centre powers, but the timing overlaps. Maidstone Borough Council’s new Public Spaces Protection Order for the town centre, covering begging and street drinking, takes effect on 29 September. The order it replaces expired on 31 August. We reported what the new order says and how often the last one was used.
What it means for you
- If you know a shop selling cheap cigarettes or vapes: Trading Standards asks people to report it to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, or through Kent Police online or on 101. Kent County Council says illegal tobacco “brings crime into your neighbourhood and is affordable for young people”.
- If you were sold something from a car in a car park: the police statement says some cigarettes were allegedly being sold from vehicles in town centre car parks. Report the location and time. Our parking guide lists every council car park by name.
- If you run a legitimate shop: Kent County Council said in 2022 it had been working with retailers on disposable vape rules. Its Trading Standards service is the place to check what you can legally sell.
- What we do not know: which businesses were shut, which streets they were on, who was arrested, and whether anyone has been charged. If Kent Police or the county council publishes those details, we will report them.
Sources
- Kent Police: Organised criminal activity disrupted by Maidstone officers, published 17 September 2026 at 15:51
- Kent County Council: Illicit tobacco and counterfeit goods seized at Maidstone shops, 19 August 2022
- Kent County Council: No place to hide, huge operation in Kent uncovers illicit tobacco and vapes, 30 September 2024
- Kent County Council: Kent Trading Standards target illicit tobacco sellers, 3 May 2023 (Crimestoppers reporting line)
- police.uk street-level crime data, February to July 2026, one-mile radius from Maidstone town centre, read on 25 September 2026
Kent Police has not named any individual or business. We will not name anyone arrested unless the force publishes a charge.
Have your say