Illicit tobacco disguised as fried noodles and toothpicks in blatant advertisements online
Illicit tobacco manufacturers are boasting about how easily they can ship illegal cigarettes into the country by disguising them as “fried noodles” or “toothpicks”.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Illicit tobacco manufacturers in China are boasting on social media about how easily they can ship their products from overseas into Australia’s ports.
Videos posted to Facebook show the blatant attempts to hide thousands of cheap smokes in packages disguised as toothpicks and fried noodles.
One page continues to promote their shipments of illicit Manchester cigarettes and Chinese smoke brand Hongtashan — asking users to “contact me if you need it”.
“Shipped in large quantities. Fast time. Beautiful price. Australian dedicated line,” the posts, translated to English read.
“Please contact me if you need it.”
Organised crime syndicates continue to haul in the majority of Australia’s illicit smokes from China and the Middle East, with the Australian Border Force seizing around 10 million illegal cigarettes each week.
But the seizures are only a slice of what organised crime gangs are importing into our shores, allowing the black market to flourish inside Victoria’s 1000-plus tobacco stores.
Australian Association of Convenience Stores chief executive Theo Foukkare said those criminals were simply importing their illegal products as they pleased.
“These illegal operators have a blatant disrespect of the law and until the government introduce their long awaited strict licensing and enforcement framework they will continue to run rampant,” he said.
“And when they are raided and have product confiscated, they are up and running within 24 hours again — this has to stop.”
Australian Border Force said their dedicated illicit tobacco taskforce was proving to slow the importation of illegal smokes into the country.
“The fight against the illicit tobacco trade and the serious and organised crime it attracts requires a multidimensional and cross-jurisdictional response,” an ABF spokesman said.
“The ABF-led Illicit Tobacco Taskforce is targeting criminal syndicates, through a hardened environment that will stem the flow of illicit tobacco into Australia.”
Criminals manufacturing and distributing illegal cigarettes are continuing to rake in more than $1bn per year as legal smoke traders feel the burn.
The black market has been tipped to completely overrun the legal cigarette trade within years as soaring taxes on legal tobacco direct smokers to the cheaper alternative.
A pack of illegal cigarettes can be sold for as little as $15 cash — proving increasingly popular when compared to a legal, taxed packet sold for more than $50.
The eye-watering price difference has prompted federal authorities to plead with Australian smokers to reconsider purchasing the cheaper packets, warning they are fuelling the black market trade.
The border force task force has so far destroyed nearly half a million kilograms of tobacco which has wiped $700m worth of revenue from criminal syndicates.
Originally published as Illicit tobacco disguised as fried noodles and toothpicks in blatant advertisements online
Four shots, lucky escape: Bikie figure survives third hit attempt
Police are holding a well-known figure in Sydney’s criminal underworld under guard ‘for his safety’ after he survived his third assassination attempt when shot multiple times overnight.
Read more
‘Second to none’: New $41m regional police facility revealed
A new ‘state-of-the-art’ multimillion-dollar police facility has opened in the state’s central west to train regional officers closer to home. Here’s the latest.
Read more