Messages reveal problem with ban
Explosive leaked text messages show the scale of the problem Australian border forces are up against when it comes to illegal vapes
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People trying to import illegal vapes are being offered insurance for seized shipments, explosive new text messages reveal.
Leaked WhatsApp messages just weeks after the nationwide ban show a potential buyer asking if insurance is provided if customs seize the products.
The seller asks if there are any requirements for vapes — and the buyer lists theirs.
“Even split of flavours, full insurance if customs seize the products,” one of the texts — reported by the Daily Mail — reads.
“And I just need to know costs,”
The buyer then puts in an order for 50000 vapes, split evenly across the flavours.
They are asked if they are “in a hurry to receive” the products.
The text chain also shows the apparent seller sending pictures of the products available, as well as asking which flavours are preferred.
The Mail reports it has seen promotional material from one Chinese e-cigarette logistics company, which claimed only 0.01 per cent of its vapes were being seized in Australia.
The company also claimed to be exporting 30 tonnes of vapes per day and have an “independent professional customs clearance team”.
Under the federal government’s recent changes, the only vapes legally allowed into the country are pharmaceutical products prescribed by a doctor to help people quit smoking.
More than 13 tonnes of disposable vapes have been seized by border authorities in Australia since the new laws took effect in January this year.
Health Minister Mark Butler says the new vape laws are the toughest in the world.
At the end of January he said 250,000 vaping products had been confiscated since the beginning of the year.
He said the sellers were targeting “young Australians”.
“This market is trying to recruit a new generation to nicotine, putting these vapes into the hands of the youngest Australians,” he said.
“It’s also funding the criminal activities of organised crime gangs, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and the like, so I just appeal to businesses and other commercial entities that have become involved in this market … find another way to make money.”
More than 3.5 million Australians smoke or vape according to data released by Cancer Council Australia last year.
Originally published as Messages reveal problem with ban
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