Giant tobacco haul linked to kingpin Kazem Hamad seized in Craigieburn

Some 250,000 cigarettes and a ton of chop chop has been seized in a Craigieburn storage facility police believe to be linked to crime kingpin Kazem Hamad.

A massive tobacco stockpile with suspected links to exiled crime boss Kazem Hamad has been seized in a raid on a Craigieburn storage facility.

Organised crime investigators from the Lunar taskforce swooped on the Hume Highway business where they uncovered the haul.

Detectives found 250,000 illicit cigarettes, 1.020 tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco known as chop-chop and 70 vapes.

The illegally imported tobacco, if not confiscated, would have resulted in the syndicate dodging $2.5 million in excise.

Police did not name Hamad but the Herald Sun has confirmed he is believed he was behind the stockpile.

Tobacco products seized in Craigieburn with suspected links to crime boss Kazem Hamad. Picture: Victoria Police

“The warrant was executed as part of a broader ongoing investigation into the organised crime syndicate, which is linked to a person currently based overseas,” a Victoria Police statement said.

The warrant was executed as part of a broader ongoing investigation into the organised crime syndicate, which is linked to a person currently based overseas.

Hamad – who was deported last year after serving a long heroin trafficking sentence – has up-ended Melbourne’s underworld in the past two years.

He is suspected of orchestrating huge stockpiles to feed consumer demand for the cheaper outlaw product and sending young minions to shops to carry out lucrative extortion work.

Police believe Kazem Hamad is behind the stockpile. Picture: Supplied

There have been widespread firebombings, shootings and assaults as combatants linked to Middle Eastern organised crime and bikie gangs fight for market share.

Detective Insp. Graham Banks, the head of Lunar, said the scale of the Craigieburn seizure showed the scope of profits which were being made.

Insp. Banks said the fact some key players were overseas would not stop police pursuing them.

“We want to cut off as much of their potential for profit, which in turn often funds other serious criminal offending,” he said.

“This is not a harmless trade It’s one that has caused immense heartache and misery throughout the community. It’s resulted in people’s livelihoods and businesses suffering due to reckless and indiscriminate arson attacks, and I will say again that it is only due to luck that we haven’t had someone killed.”