Australian Border Force led operation sees two SA tobacco stores raided with thousands of cigarettes and vapes seized
Thousands of illicit cigarettes and vapes worth around $160,000 have been taken off SA streets after a major Australian Border Force raid.
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A nationwide police operation has led to raids at two Adelaide northern suburbs stores resulting in the seizure of nearly $160,000 worth of illicit tobacco and vaping products.
In a bid to crackdown on the sale and distribution of illicit tobacco and vaping, which has grown to become a lucrative market for criminal networks, the Australian Border Force (ABF) joined forces with law enforcement, intelligence and health agencies across the country to carry out a week-long operation, under Taskforce Morpheus.
ABF’s Illicit Tobacco Taskforce investigators and the state’s Consumer and Business Services executed two compliance inspections at tobacco stores on Tuesday August 6 and Wednesday August 7.
During the two day raid, more than 37,000 cigarette sticks, 126kg of shisha tobacco, 27 individual cigars, 2372 disposable vapes, and 2.3kg of loose leaf tobacco were seized.
319,800 illicit tobacco cigarettes were also seized from a storage facility.
The location of the facility was not disclosed by ABF, but they are continuing to investigate the importation and storage of those items.
The operation dubbed Week of Action also set out to target outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCG) in the country, hoping to disrupt the business model of key distributors and actors within the illicit tobacco and vaping market.
Four OMCG members and associates arriving or leaving from Australia airports also interacted with ABF officers, however no further action was taken following the interactions.
Across the state, the ABF investigators – assisted by other agencies – executed four warrants at tobacconists in the Gold Coast, which had known links to members and associates of an OMCG.
More than 61,000 cigarette sticks and over 15kg of loose leaf tobacco was seized.
In NSW, almost 4,000 disposable vapes and about 110,000 illicit tobacco cigarettes were seized, following three inspections at tobacconists on The Central Coast – all believed to have links to organised criminal networks.
ABF Commander Ken McKern said the operation led to 742,811 cigarettes, 76kg of loose leaf tobacco, 127kg of shisha and 9,338 disposable vapes were seized across the country.
“Criminal networks see the illicit tobacco market as a low risk, high return commodity – these organised crime groups are highly adaptive and resilient,” Commander McKern said.
He said illicit products are likely to be moved, or pop up in new shops or locations following any raid, but the illicit tobacco market will remain a prime focus for the ABF.
“We will continue to disrupt these syndicate’s business models, and some of the best approaches to doing so is by joining forces with our partner agencies, sharing intelligence, and using all available agency powers and legislation, to dismantle these criminal operations,” he said.
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