From: The Daily Telegraph
Chris Argent
IN the Daily Telegraph last week, Professor Nicholas Talley suggested the illicit tobacco market in Australia is not a problem and has not grown with plain packaging. Nothing could be further from the truth. The black market in tobacco is one of the fastest growing and most profitable organised crime activities in Australia.
READ PROF NICHOLAS TALLEY’S OPINION PIECE HERE
Federal government agencies acknowledge the seriousness of this insidious trade. The Australian Crime Commission in 2013 said: “Organised crime has sustained access to cheap tobacco product overseas, which can be illegally imported, avoiding tax obligations to supply the illegal tobacco market in Australia. Many of those involved in illegal tobacco importations are also involved in other illicit markets, such as drugs.”
In October last year, Roman Quaedvlieg, the CEO of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, listed illicit tobacco as one of the agency’s top six priorities. Its 2013-14 annual report shows an increase in detection of illegal cigarettes being smuggled into Australia by sea.
A week before Christmas, Hong Kong Customs released a statement saying they had smashed a suspected smuggling case resulting in the seizure of about 12,000kg of unmanufactured tobacco, the largest such case in the past decade.
