From: Australian Border Forces
Australian Border Force (ABF) officers arrested a 43-year-old dual Australian/Vietnamese citizen at Melbourne International Airport on Sunday over his alleged involvement in the attempted import of 4.5 million undeclared cigarettes, by falsely declaring consignments as toilet paper on official paperwork.
ABF officers stopped the man for a baggage examination as he attempted to board a flight to Vietnam.
Further investigations allegedly linked the man to the large-scale importation of illicit tobacco via three separate sea cargo consignments in April.
The shipping containers containing the tobacco were detected and seized during a six day period in April at the Melbourne Container Examination Facility and were marked as containing toilet paper, kitchen paper towels and napkins.
Each consignment contained 1,500,000 undeclared cigarettes.
The cigarettes had a total amount of duty evaded estimated at $3.2 million.
Assistant Commissioner Enforcement Command, Sharon Huey said ABF is seeing an increase in the amount of illicit tobacco being seized in Victoria thanks to a focus on detecting it and investigating the criminal groups importing it.
“Detecting and stopping illicit tobacco is one of the ABFs top priorities and those looking to make a profit through these means should know that we will catch up with them,” Assistant Commissioner Huey said.
“We’ve invested significantly to upgrade our detection capability at the Melbourne Container Examination Facility and, through the Tobacco Strike Team and the recently announced Illicit Tobacco Taskforce, we are increasing our ability to investigate these criminal enterprises.”
“People should realise that when they buy a packet of illegal cigarettes, they are supporting a market dominated by criminal syndicates who use the profits from illicit tobacco to fund other illegal activities.”
The man was arrested and charged with three counts of smuggling tobacco under s.233BABAD(1) of the Customs Act 1901.
He was released on bail to re-appear before the Magistrate on Tuesday 12 June 2018.
