Adelaide businessman Xi Wang denies being the mastermind of a tobacco smuggling syndicate aimed at international students
An Adelaide man caught trying to smuggle 163,000 cigarettes and 85kg of tobacco into Adelaide has denied being the mastermind behind the operation.
Police & Courts
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A box labelled “large dust prevention filters” is not normally enough to raise eyebrows when it arrives at Adelaide Airport.
Addressed to Paul Wang at a Ridgehaven address, the box looked to the naked eye like any which might pass through an air cargo worker’s hands.
But the prying eye of an x-ray showed its true nature.
Inconsistencies within the filters, showing hollow spaces filled with unknown items, prompted the workers to open the box.
As the cargo workers prised open one of the filters, more than 100 packets of Marlborough Gold cigarettes fell out.
The box contained four filters and each filter was packed with 120 packets totalling 19,200 cigarettes.
On March 12, 2019, three days after the first box had been identified, a second box arrived at Adelaide Airport with the same listed contents and address.
Once again the filters were stuffed with cigarettes.
A month later four similar packages were seized in Sydney as they entered the country.
As Border Force and state and federal police begun to look into the boxes they found they were only a sample of more than 140 packages bound for Adelaide containing illegal cigarettes.
The discovery put police on the trail of an Adelaide businessman who was the planned recipient of the boxes and their illicit cargo.
Some of the boxes sported labels claiming they contained items as diverse as parts, ornament, wood storage bag, apron and the nonsensical “hand catchary”.
Others were labelled with their true contents: cigarettes, while still others had the word written and then crossed out.
Adelaide businessman Xi Wang, known variously on the packages as Eric and Paul as well as Xi, became the police’s gateway into “buttlegging”, the illegal trade in cigarettes and tobacco.
But as police intercepted 144 parcels of cigarettes bound for Xi and located almost 150 more cartons at his home, the 38-year-old argued he was only a “post box” for the flow of the illicit tobacco aimed at “rich” international students.
Wang pleaded guilty in October 2019 to importing 163,000 cigarettes and 85kg of loose tobacco between February 11 2019 and May 15, 2019, all of which was seized on route.
When police raided his Ridgehaven home on May 7, 2019, they found another 29,700 cigarettes and 28.9kg of loose tobacco spread between his house and car.
In total Xi pleaded guilty to evading almost $281,000 in excise tax for all the shipments and items in his house.
But his sentencing process had become bogged down in disputed facts hearings over the extent of Xi’s role in the operation.
The prosecution has contended that Xi was the “principal” offender in the operation.
They initially linked $54,495 found in Xi’s bedroom, $26,605 found tucked away in his wardrobe and $2887 in a wallet in the second bedroom of his home to the illegal cigarette trade.
However, this was later dropped by the prosecution though a civil asset seizure lawsuit continues against Xi in the District Court.
Police also seized an iPhone from Xi’s home which had messages to people talking about the trade in illegal cigarettes around Adelaide.
In the messages, released to the Sunday Mail by the courts, Xi appears to offer to sell Chinese brand Double Happiness along with Blue Ice Double Blast and Marlboro Ice Blast.
A response to one Xi’s messages from an unknown number says his customers, described as rich foreign students, do not like the Double Happiness brand.
Another exchange shows Xi selling the cartons of cigarettes for 350RMB, a reference to renminbi, the offial currency of China.
According to the exchange the cartons were selling for around $73 each.
Xi operates a business sending baby formula and other items back to China and used his business contacts to have the packages of cigarettes addressed to three different PO boxes and two Adelaide companies.
Andrew Moffa, for Xi, told District Court Judge Rauf Soulio that his client was not the primary player in the operation.
“The prosecution say that when the evidence is considered together, the only rational inference is that the offender was importing tobacco for sale and was a principal offender,” he said during a hearing earlier this month.
“It is easy to make the claim or allegation that my client is the principal, and they have said that in their submission.
“Your honour should have no issue resolving the facts dispute in favour of my client to show he is not the principal offender.”
Mr Moffa said Xi had been described in the evidence as a “post box” who received the packages and then passed them on.
His sentencing is expected to be finalised next month.
Wang has previously been convicted of drug trafficking. When he was found with the drugs in September 2015, he also had possession of large amounts of cigarettes and tobacco.
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