Australia Seizes Record Amount of Illegal Tobacco

The haul of more than 70 tons of tobacco would have brought in millions on the black market.

October 16, 2015

SYDNEY, Australia – The Australian Border Force (ABF) has recovered the largest shipment of illegal tobacco (more than 70 tons) ever seized in a single operation Down Under, ABC News.net reports. The seizure is the latest in a string of arrests and confiscations surrounding illegal tobacco and cigarettes. Earlier this week, officials grabbed nearly 6 million contraband cigarettes from a series of raids in Melbourne. In June, law enforcement officials confiscated close to 10 tons of illegal tobacco products trafficked into the country from the United Arab Emirates.

In September, police arrested 12 people in conjunction with a large cigarette smuggling operation in Sydney, which brought in shipments from the United Arab Emirates. Those shipments had a black market price tag of around $5.4 million.

“There are clear links to organized crime and we know that groups smuggling illicit tobacco into Australia are also involved in other illegal activities such as narcotics,” said Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton. “The ABF is determined to disrupt their activities and the new ABF strike team will focus on the organized crime syndicates behind shipments like this and collect intelligence on their operations.”

Dutton emphasized the continued cooperation between Indonesian Customs and ABF as helping with the success of recent operations. “Their long, constructive links over many years are crucial in disrupting the operations of transnational criminal organizations dealing in illicit drugs and tobacco,” he said.

Contraband cigarettes abound across the globe. For example, new research commissioned by the Atlantic Convenience Stores Association (ACSA) shows that illegal cigarettes could account for more than 10% of all cigarettes smoked in Newfoundland.

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