Death of the first innocent: How the government bungled the tobacco war

For such a publicly violent and dangerous underworld conflict, Victoria’s so-called tobacco war has been remarkably bloodless for the wider community – until now.

Katie Tangey has been revealed to have been the first innocent bystander to die, burning to death inside a Truganina home in January after being caught up in a devastating case of mistaken identity.

Photographer and performer Katie Tangey, who was killed last month.Credit: Facebook

But the death of an innocent person was entirely predictable as violent Middle Eastern organised crime syndicates have gone tit for tat in the tobacco turf war that has now lasted two years, police say.

Just one day before the burlesque performer and photographer was killed, Detective Inspector Chris Murray, head of the arson and explosives squad, had warned it was only a matter of time before someone innocent became caught in the crossfire.

Murray made the warning while talking to the media in Chapel Street, South Yarra, after an alleged arsonist sustained “catastrophic injuries” in the firebombing of a dessert bar in Prahran and was left fighting for his life in hospital.

“This was our worst fear,” Murray said at the time. “We had been seeing incidents like this go on for some time and we always feared something like this could occur, and it has happened.

“Above this shop, there could have been an apartment. We could have had innocent lives lost.”

Hours later, Tangey made a triple-zero phone call to say she was trapped inside a burning home.

She was 27 years old and house-sitting for her brother while he was on honeymoon. Neither Tangey, her brother, his wife nor any other member of the family had any connection to Melbourne’s criminal underworld, yet they have been caught up in what has become an all-too-common arson attack.

For more than a month, it has remained unclear how two arsonists who doused the front of the three-storey townhouse in Melbourne’s west with large amounts of accelerant had got it so wrong.

A camera at the Dover Street, Truganina, house captured the moment it was engulfed, before two men, one carrying what appears to be a jerry can, fled the scene.Credit: Victoria Police

On Tuesday, police announced that new information had led investigators to classify the January 16 attack as the first innocent fatality linked to the tobacco conflict, which has grown significantly more violent since it began in March 2023.

There have been more than 130 firebombings and at least three gangland execution-style murders, but until January, no member of the public had ever been directly caught in the crossfire – dozens had been forced to flee for their lives as fires lit in tobacco shops and restaurants threatened apartment buildings and neighbouring businesses, but only an alleged arsonist had been injured.

“This was always our fear that someone would die in the tobacco wars. And unfortunately, this has come to fruition,” Murray said on Tuesday.

“I’ve said many times that arson is absolutely unpredictable. It is no surprise to me that, unfortunately, someone has died at the hands of individuals who use arson as a means of committing criminality.

“There are some crimes which stay with you. This is going to be one of those.”

It’s a message that police have been trying to spread publicly since the beginning of the conflict.

The state government has repeatedly condemned the violence.

“Victoria Police are clearly continuing their investigation into this matter and I’m not going to cut across that investigation,” Premier Jacinta Allan said on Tuesday.

The townhouse was destroyed.Credit: Penny Stephens

But the former Andrews government was warned about the dangers of criminal infiltration of the tobacco market – and was urged to introduce a specialised licensing scheme – more than two years ago in a report it commissioned but did not act on.

As The Age reported last week, police have been flagging their concerns about an escalation in the illegal tobacco market to the government since at least late 2023.

“Victoria Police Crime Command has reached out to propose a meeting between parties in order to share some insight into the escalating risks we’re observing in the illicit and licit tobacco space, and the current need for rapid regulation,” the force’s police and legislative division wrote to the government in September 2023, according to an email obtained under freedom-of-information laws.

By the time new tobacco laws were introduced to parliament in November, three years after the government commissioned the report that recommended the move, there had been more than 100 firebombings and two fatal shootings linked to the conflict.

While the legislation comes into effect in July, it will not be enforced until early 2026 as the government begins to build the inspection and compliance infrastructure from scratch.

Opposition police spokesman David Southwick said the government needed to bring its tobacco licensing laws into effect sooner to prevent further tragedies.

“An innocent life has been lost because the government has failed to act on organised crime and the tobacco wars,” Southwick said.

“The premier should come in today and ensure that those laws are implemented tomorrow. That’s what needs to happen. No more sitting on your hands, Premier Allan. Get up and do something, this family deserves that.

Those who knew Tangey described her as a shining star.Credit: Facebook

“I think what we’re seeing at the moment is the urgency to actually get on with it.”

South Australia introduced a major crackdown on its emerging tobacco black market within two months of announcing the move, in what has been touted by police sources frustrated by the Victorian government’s delay as an example of what can be achieved. A specialist unit has been shutting down shops selling black market goods since then.

Southwick said strengthened anti-association laws that passed parliament last year but are yet to fully come into effect are another example of the Victorian government grabbing headlines but lacking detail.

More than 100 arrests have been made in Victoria alone related to the tobacco war, overwhelmingly of accused low-level gang members linked to contract arson jobs or middle-level organisers who plan the jobs. Many have been bailed while awaiting trial.

A number were released by order of a court into the care of private bail and rehabilitation services. Two of the most prominent such services, BailSafe and AFTR, have collapsed amid police investigations.

The state government had been warned about serious problems in the private bail service industry – primarily around its apparent abuse by cashed-up crime figures – more than six months before.

There were also plenty of warnings sounded to the state government about law enforcement in Victoria falling behind serious organised crime with the advent of complex new syndicates using encrypted telecommunications technology and cryptocurrency.

Sunny, the golden retriever Tangey had been minding, also died in the fire.Credit: Instagram

A review commissioned into the operation of the state’s anti-organised crime laws recommended in a June 2020 report that new powers be adopted. They would empower police to stop criminals associating with each other and impose control orders over known organised crime figures in a bid to frustrate the day-to-day operations of criminal syndicates and networks.

The Allan government did not introduce the laws until August 2024, and they passed parliament in October with an inbuilt delayed starting date of late August 2025.

“It’s been four years since they started reviewing the organised crime legislation. It’s passed, but it’s still not there,” said an organised crime detective, who cannot be identified speaking on the record. “The licensing system is still a long way off.”

Allan expressed her deepest sympathy to Katie Tangey’s family and insisted Victoria had introduced the toughest laws in the country to crack down on illegal tobacco.

“There has been an increase in the importation of illegal tobacco into the country,” she said. “Australian Federal Police have been taking actions to strengthen the response at the borders, and we are taking action within the state borders to crack down on the illegal tobacco trade.”

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