Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) to throw snuff into a victim’s face, rendering them temporarily blind and thus easier to rob; thus snuffing n.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 267: snuffing going into a shop on some pretence, watching an opportunity to throw a handful of snuff in the eyes of the shop-keeper, and then running off with any valuable article you can lay hands on; this is called snuffing him, or giving it to him upon the snuff racket.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1812].