Illegal tobacco wars light up across states as crimes rise in Qld

Fire bombings and ram raids on stores selling illegal cigarettes are spreading into multiple states as governments play a game of “whack-a-mole” on the lucrative market.

Queensland is the latest state to see a rise in the violent attacks on tobacconists as illegal sales ramp up across Australia, the state’s health minister has revealed.

The violence in Queensland is not at the level of Victoria or NSW, where there has been a spate of targeted torchings as a result of the ongoing war between criminal gangs over the profits of illegal tobacco.

There have been more than 100 firebombings in Victoria over two years while seven men have been arrested across Sydney over the theft of illegal cigarettes and chop-chop, or loose tobacco, in the past year.

But the Sunshine State is seeing a rise with reports of fire bombings, torchings and ram raids at tobacconists.

“That’s obviously a sign of the increasing criminal activity and criminal element that’s getting into this very lucrative illicit tobacco trade,” Health Minister Tim Nicholls told ABC Radio.

An illegal tobacco bust in Brisbane’s Eagle Farm last year.Credit: Australian Border Force

Harsh laws came into effect in Queensland earlier this month, increasing fines for individuals caught illegally supplying cigarettes to $32,260 per individual, up from $3226, and corporations can now be fined $161,300, up from $16,130.

It follows new fines introduced in September last year that enabled authorities to close offending businesses for up to six months – a penalty no other state had introduced.

There are 5000 retailers in Queensland with hundreds more estimated to be selling illegal tobacco, Mr Nicholls said.

Since April 3, there have been 36 raids across the state with 820,000 cigarettes, 180kg of tobacco and 24,000 nicotine pouches seized.

“As soon as these pop-up shops open up and are closed by our hard-working teams they open up yet again in another location,” Mr Nicholls said.

“It’s a bit of a whack-a-mole game at the moment, but we’ve got to attack it.”

Mr Nicholls hoped increasing the fines ten-fold would “break the back” of the illegal tobacco trade but said it had to be a combined effort with federal authorities to stop it entering the country.

He added that the major gap in price between illegal tobacco and legal cigarettes due to the excise is likely fuelling the illicit market despite his federal counterpart Mark Butler ruling out a change to the tax.

“I think that obviously plays a part in it, and that people who enjoy a cigarette, and we obviously want to get them off it, but we’ll see the opportunity to do something cheaper in a cost-of-living crisis,” Mr Nicholls said.

AAP