Glenroy Cigarettes on Belair Ave attacked for third time in four months

Bullets have been fired into a Glenroy smoke shop in a drive-by shooting, the third attack on the same store in a matter of months.

A crime scene has been established after a drive-by shooting at a Glenroy tobacco shop. Picture: Facebook

Bullets have been fired into a northern suburbs tobacco shop in the third attack on the store in just four months.

Local detectives say several shots were blasted into Glenroy Cigarettes on Belair Ave in Glenroy about 11.30pm on Thursday night.

They were fired from a vehicle driving past the shop.

Police say a “group of people” were inside the smoke shop at the time.

They fled the scene before police arrived.

Merri-bek Crime Investigation Unit is investigating the drive-by shooting.

A van was torched outside the same store only last month in a suspected attack in the illicit smoke trade.

The van was torched outside Glenroy Cigarettes last month. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Three teenagers were charged with setting the van on fire. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Three offenders were seen pouring an accelerant over the van before it was torched on the street on August 17.

That blaze came three months after the store was set alight on May 17.

Three teenagers were later arrested in relation to that fire which partially damaged the shop front but failed to destroy it completely.

Two boys, aged 15 and 17, and another boy, were later hit with a series of charges including arson and theft of motor vehicle.

Lunar detectives have so far investigated 98 tobacco store fires linked to the illicit tobacco market.

They have made more than 80 arrests but will not be aided by the federal government’s decision to increase the price of legal smokes.

That decision, experts say, is tipped to only fuel the black market trade as smokers opt for the cheaper alternative.