NewsBite

Tobacco

Advertisement
Photographer and performer Katie Tangey, who was killed in the blaze.

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

Police say Katie Tangey’s death was entirely predictable as violent organised crime gangs fought their tobacco turf war.

  • Chris Vedelago, Marta Pascual Juanola and Rachel Eddie

Latest

Tangey had a knack for make-up and photography.

Melbourne’s tobacco war claims the life of ‘completely innocent’ house sitter

A woman who died trapped in a burning home became the first civilian fatality in the gangland war over control of Melbourne’s illicit tobacco trade.

  • Cassandra Morgan and Marta Pascual Juanola
Two Ballarat tobacco shops went up in flames in the early hours of Thursday.

The tobacco war safe-zone where violent gangs are policing themselves

Criminal syndicates have called a truce over tobacco shops in one area of Melbourne as experts declare our crime-fighting strategy a failure that only a radical rethink can fix.

  • Marta Pascual Juanola, Chris Vedelago and Lachlan Abbott
The Queensland fire service is adding electric vehicles to its fleet.

Police treating tobacconist fire south of Brisbane as suspicious

Emergency crews arrived to find the tobacconist fully engulfed in the early hours of Saturday morning.

  • Courtney Kruk and William Davis
Underworld kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad is extorting nearly $1 million a month from the state’s illicit tobacco shops.

Tobacco war kingpin making $1 million a month in ‘extortion tax’

Kazem Hamad’s crime syndicate now controls several hundred underground tobacco retailers, and it’s netting “monster” business for the underworld kingpin.

  • Chris Vedelago
Inside the firebombed Fortitude Valley business. still smelling of burnt plastic on Friday afternoon.

‘A growing issue’: Police work to stamp out Brisbane’s tobacco turf war

“One thing we don’t want to do is jeopardise the safety of innocent Queenslanders,” Police Minister Dan Purdie said.

  • William Davis
Advertisement
The business in Fortitude Valley on Thursday morning.

Valley shop firebombed, police to probe any organised crime links

“This has only been a tobacco store for maybe two or three weeks, so it’s very new.”

  • William Davis
Kazem Hamad.

He’s one of Australia’s most wanted criminals. This is why he’s untouchable

Police suspect Kazem Hamad is directing the Melbourne tobacco war firebombings, shootings and drug trafficking from Iraq. We reveal why they can’t bring him back to face justice.

  • Chris Vedelago and Marta Pascual Juanola
An arson attack on a Moonee Ponds tobacco shop last year.

Chop chop crackdown: Illegal tobacco sellers to face up to 15 years in prison

The Allan government also plans to establish a tobacco licensing scheme, after more than 100 firebombings targeting cigarette shops around the state.

  • Carla Jaeger, Rachel Eddie and Chris Vedelago
The car driving into the tobacco shop in Midland.

‘Tobacco wars not welcome in Perth’, police warn after Midland firebombing

In Melbourne, turf boundary wars between major crime players in the illicit tobacco trade has ignited a war that has resulted in 100 firebombings in the past two years.

  • Heather McNeill

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/topic/tobacco-jqw