2 months ago
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The smuggling of illegal cigarettes and vapes into Australia has been publicly linked to a Queensland bikie group after major raids on the Gold Coast.
Border Force seized more than a million cigarettes and 9000 vapes from storage sheds in Robina and Burleigh this week.
Investigators believe the haul belonged to a “prominent” Queensland group with links to an outlaw motorcycle gang, a statement revealed on Sunday.
The seizure of more than a million cigarettes and 9000 vapes by Border Force this week. Credit: Border Force
The group was allegedly importing illegal tobacco and vapes across Queensland and NSW, and operated its own retail outlets in both states.
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“Australians must understand that when they buy illicit tobacco, they are directly funding organised crime syndicates,” Border Force commander Greg Dowse said in the statement.
“Every dollar in the pockets of these gangs supports violence and other serious crimes.”
Images supplied by Border Force showed some of the illegal cigarettes were Manchester branded and boxed in mock plain packaging.
Manchester cannot be legally sold anywhere in Australia, and the company website says it is based out of a warehouse at the Jebel Ali port in Dubai. The cigarettes can be purchased almost 10 million at a time in 12-metre shipping containers.
This masthead previously revealed importers were flooding the Brisbane market with more illegal tobacco than ever before.
Ten convenience stores and tobacconists across multiple suburbs all openly sold illegal Manchester cigarettes, and many also stocked illegal Chinese brand “Double Happiness”, Korean brand “ESSE”, and imported “Marlboro Reds” and “Winfield Blues”, among others.
Manchester cigarettes imported in fake Australian plain packaging. Credit: Border Force
Prices ranged from $17 to $25 per pack – about 50 per cent cheaper than most legitimately taxed plain-packaging equivalents.
None of the sellers were prepared to discuss their supply chains.
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