Border Force to set up arm to takle Australia’s out of control illegal tobacco problem

As crime gangs fight to control the illegal tobacco trade on Melbourne’s streets and border force officers deal with unprecedented levels flowing into Australia, illegal cigarettes continue to be sold freely in stores across Melbourne.

Serious organised crime gangs are smuggling unprecedented levels of tobacco into Australia with authorities revealing they have seized almost five billion cigarettes at the border in the past three years.

The tsunami of importations has prompted Border Force to set up a branch dedicated to tackling illicit tobacco for the first time in its history.

Commander Ken McKern, who spearheads the new squad, told the Herald Sun the record seizures showed the mammoth scale of the problem.

He also revealed plans to have ABF officers in South East Asia and Europe in a bid to disrupt illicit shipments at the source.

“The ABF has created a new branch just to focus on illicit tobacco and vapes, which highlights the importance the ABF places in tackling this problem,” he said.

“We’ve led the Illicit Tobacco Task Force for a number of years focusing on the associated organised crime elements. But now we have enhanced our response through a dedicated branch that focuses on increased offshore disruption alongside domestic enforcement.”

He added: “You can see from the size of the detections and what that would mean for the domestic market, that’s what we are up against.

“It is frustrating to see a product that we are trying to stop at the border being sold freely in a shop front down in the CBD of Melbourne.

Almost 5 billion illegal cigarettes have been seized on our borders in recent years. Picture: David Caird

“You can still seize the product at the border but while you have shops that you can just walk in and buy it, then you have to close that, you have to address that problem.

“It’s an end to end issue. The border is one part of it but we need to look at the whole issue to see what we need to address.”

Crime syndicates have gone to war in Victoria fighting over control of the lucrative market. There have been more than 90 tobacco shops and linked businesses firebombed in the conflict since March last year. There have also been shootings and at least one person murdered, which is suspected of being linked to the illegal trade.

Police are investigating whether two of the main players are Fadi Haddara and exiled crime boss Kazem ‘Kaz’ Hamad. Police have also arrested and charged Majid Alibadi who they alleged is Hamad’s Melbourne-based lieutenant.

Underworld sources have told the Herald Sun gangs pay $250,000 to ship a cargo container full of cigarettes from China or the United Arab Emirates into Melbourne – but that container will earn them between $7-13 million. This means the syndicates only need one container to get past customs in every 30 they ship to make a significant profit.

An ABF officer watches the X-ray screening of a container on a truck for anomalies. Picture: David Caird

An X-ray screening of a container truck finds thousands of illegal cigarette packets. Picture: David Caird

In the 2020-2021 financial year, ABF detected 598 million cigarettes. Last financial year they found 1.86 billion.

Commander McKern said Border Force will be placing additional ABF officers in Europe and South East Asia by the end of the financial year to gather intelligence and work with international counterparts to stop the shipments from reaching our shores.

“The (federal) government this year announced $188.5m over four years to the ABF to target illicit tobacco and the ABF takes responsibility for ensuring that money is allocated in the right way, handled in the right way so that we get the results that we need,” he said.

“There’s a lot of forward planning for that because we recognise, like we have in the illicit drug space, that if we fight the problem offshore that’s a big strategy and success to stop the commodity being sent to Australia in the first place.

“So we are increasing our footprint in South East Asia and Europe to work with our counterparts, work with overseas customs agencies, work with police, to target our crime syndicates offshore, to attack the problem at the source.

“If we can put people offshore and stop shipments from even coming to Australia, that might not result in a prosecution but it is a significant success in its own right, and it can reduce supply and potentially the demand.

Commander McKern said the volume of trade coming into Australia means that it has to use information and intelligence to ensure targeting of goods is accurate.

“It is impossible to scan every container and maintain the speed of trade to support Australia’s economy,” he said.

“Our job as the Border Force is to facilitate legitimate product coming in from across the border while balancing that with detecting and preventing illicit goods from entering so that’s a cost and balance and it’s something we have to be very careful with.

“Of course we would love to scan 100 per cent of sea cargo coming in but that would have a catastrophic effect on the economy and legitimate trade. So we use a variety of methods with which to identify and target movements across the border. Intel is very much a critical component of that targeting process.”

He added: “Border Force has a role to play at the border in relation to illicit tobacco and we do that very well and you can see that by what we are identifying and seizing, but we can’t do it alone.

“Border control alone won’t fix the problem. It needs to be an end to end model with international and domestic partners.

“Border Force will continue to seize and intercept tobacco and we will do that in good numbers but we need to work together and we need toi tackle this from both a law enforcement and health perspective because we are seeing serious and organised crime entrenched in illicit tobacco and that presents a very real risk to community safety.”

Cigs seized at our border

2021-2022: 1.115 billion

2022-2023: 1.776 billion

2023-2024: 1.860 billion

TOTAL: 4.751 billion