Illegal tobacco crops booming as syndicates eye off profits
Crooks are out in force across NSW planting illegal tobacco crops from which they will reap huge profits to pay for even more lucrative criminal activities, writes Crime Editor Mark Morri.
NSW
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CRIME BOSSES and their minions are out in force all over the state planting illegal cannabis and tobacco crops from which they will reap millions of dollars to fund their even more lucrative cocaine, methamphetamine, gun and in some cases, terrorism activities.
September is the prime month for setting up the cash crops with tobacco becoming an increasing popular commodity, after the tax on cigarettes increasing yet again last week.
It may swell the government coffers but it has the syndicates also rubbing their hands together as demand for their cheap and illegal product soars.
The Australian Taxation Office has a special taskforce set up to detect the growing trade in illegal tobacco both home grown and imported from such countries as the United Emirates and Malaysia.
They have also found crime syndicates approaching farmers to grow tobacco among legitimate crops particularly corn.
One crop in southern NSW this year was worth an estimated $18.5 million.
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Illegal tobacco has long been linked overseas, and now in Australia, as a potential income for terrorists. One commander of the Al-Qaeda linked Islamic Maghreb, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was called “Mr Marlboro’’ by the US Justice Department, so large was his involvement in the illegal tobacco trade.
In May, eight men were arrested after a NSW Strikeforce investigating terrorism funding led them to an illicit tobacco-importation syndicate operating in Sydney’s southwest.
Those charged are not accused of any involvement with terrorism.
There have been other similar arrests by the NSW Counter Terrorism Unit and there will be more.
Massive plantations of the new cash crop have been uncovered by both the ATO and NSW Police along with the traditional dope plants.
But it's illegal tobacco which is now surging, as crims see it as high reward and low risk which, if caught, is often only fined rather than jail.
“There are little back room operations in western Sydney where special machines are turning the leaf into black market cigarettes,” a law enforcement officer told Crim City.
They then end up being sold for anywhere from $15 to $20 a pack under the counter in places like Chinatown, suburban markets and little corner stores.
“There is huge money being made by crime groups, dominated by the Asian groups such as Korean and Chinese,” he said.
Dope plantations, especially in northern NSW, are still the domain of the bikie gangs who use remote mountains and National Parks for their crops, while Italian crime groups are still based in the southwest of the state.
Then there is the cigarettes being smuggled into Australia where the importers are not paying millions of dollars of tax.
“We are not talking about people smuggling a few extra cartoons in through customs, we are talking about container loads of millions of cigarettes,” a federal agent said.
There's a saying in the NSW drug squad “plant by Father’s Day and harvest before Mother’s day”.
That gives our law enforcement cops the next nine months to detect and destroy the crops, but more importantly the profits the syndicates are sweating on.