Australian Border Force has seized just under a billion illegal cigarettes worth $1.1 billion in forgone tax over the past two years as the Illicit Tobacco Taskforce ramped up its campaign against the booming black market.

The taskforce has confiscated more than 1.5 billion cigarettes since it was established in 2018-19. Along with tonnes of illegal loose-leaf tobacco, this has amounted to almost $1.8 billion in evaded duty, according to documents obtained by The Australian Financial Review under freedom of information.