Underworld kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad has allegedly more than doubled his extortion fee to $5000 a month for shops selling illegal tobacco, as he consolidates control of the black market after a two-year campaign of violence, according to underworld and police sources.
The “Kaz tax” is a protection payment extorted from tobacco retailers that allows them to sell the cheap illicit cigarettes allegedly being smuggled into Victoria by the Hamad gang. Those who refuse to pay are threatened, and if they fail to fall into line, their shops may be firebombed.
Tobacco kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad allegedly runs his crime syndicate from overseas.
The “tax” was originally set at $2000 a month, payable in cash, but rose to $3000 last year and then to $5000 in about six months. A packet of black market cigarettes currently costs between $12 and $14, but this is expected to go up as stores are forced to pay the higher extortion figure. Legal cigarettes cost about $40 a packet.
By late last year, the gang was estimated by police and underworld sources to be collecting more than $1 million in extortion payments every month from several hundred shops around the state. There are more than 1300 shops believed to be selling illicit tobacco in Victoria.
There have been more than 130 arson attacks and numerous shootings and murders linked to Victoria’s so-called tobacco war, which broke out in March 2023 after Hamad’s brazen new crime syndicate began to muscle into the billion-dollar illegal tobacco market.
Hamad was deported to his native Iraq in mid-2023 after spending eight years in a Victorian prison for drug trafficking. The 40-year-old has emerged as one of the most powerful and dangerous players in Melbourne’s underworld on the back of a wave of profits from illicit tobacco and drugs.
An underworld source, who cannot be named for fear of retribution, said the monthly “tax” had soared to $5000 as the Hamad syndicate gained increasing dominance over the illegal market.
“It’s getting towards a monopoly. They can charge what they want. Everyone knows now what happens if you don’t pay,” the source said.
The payments initially rose from $2000 a month to $3000 a month last year before rising to $5000 now, according to police intelligence and underworld sources.
Information about the inner workings of the alleged extortion scheme have also come to light in court hearings after more than a dozen alleged members of the Hamad syndicate were arrested and charged last month.
“There’s substantial payments going – we believe it’s around $4000 to $5000 a month. It does depend on the business, to an extent, and how it’s owned and run,” Detective Inspector Graham Banks said at a press conference.
At a bail hearing in late March, Detective Senior Constable Cameron O’Brien testified that Hamad syndicate “agents” outsource the collection of the payments to low-level operatives, who pick up the cash from compliant stores and deliver it to a middle man.
“Kazem and [his brother] Maytham Hamad are known to task people out to commit offences such as arsons and extortions on his behalf, and to facilitate his demand for protection money,” O’Brien told the court.
The “Kaz tax” is expected to be paid on the first day of the month, the court heard.
The bagmen are allegedly paid from the day’s takings, with one receiving $1600 after picking up the tax from six different shops, which would have been worth at least $30,000.
O’Brien said that in one instance, thousands of dollars in extortion money was allegedly wrapped in a towel and hidden on a roundabout near the home of one of the accused middle men for later collection.
Police sources suspect that the Hamad syndicate has created one or more “stash houses” where hundreds of thousands of dollars are collected and stored each week.
The huge volumes of cash being generated by the extortion scheme have been ploughed back into the syndicate’s other illegal activities, including funding a lavish lifestyle for crew members and paying for top-notch legal representation when they are arrested.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.