WA’s top cop says shooting, arson attacks linked to police crackdown on illegal tobacco

3 months ago 4

West Australian police believe a shooting at a Ballajura shop overnight and a building fire in Maddington on Thursday are linked to the force’s crackdown on the illegal tobacco market.

Police Commissioner Col Blanch said there had been “significant action” taken against organised crime groups involved in the illicit trade, and “we have taken out some key players who are currently in custody”.

A store in Ballajura was peppered with bullets overnight in what WA Police believe is a retaliatory attack following a crackdown on the state’s illegal tobacco market.

A store in a shopping centre on Illawarra Crescent was peppered with bullets about 1.50am on Friday, police said, with the black-clad shooter fleeing towards Kingfisher Avenue.

A WA Police spokesman said detectives believed it was a targeted attack, and further inquiries suggested the shop had a link to illegal tobacco products.

Speaking on media on Friday morning, Blanch said the shooting was suspected to be a stand-over tactic by the crime gangs fuelling WA’s illicit tobacco trade.

“Sadly, organised crime think a response to that is to stand over, intimidate and take actions like arson and shootings against those that they feel may have contributed to their arrest,” he said.

“So the local West Australians who are committing these crimes for very low amounts and are often just tasked to do this for very low payment, will be arrested.

“In fact, we’ve identified most people involved in any of these cases.

“Our priority at the moment is who’s earning the profit outside of Western Australia, often over the east coast of Australia or overseas.

“There’s multiple challenges involved in international extraditions, but I think if we want to have a serious chance at disrupting transnational serious and organised crime, Australia has to be much faster in extraditing those who are causing the greatest harm to our community, in an organised crime sense, from overseas.”

Blanch did not name key players at the centre of police’s efforts to combat illegal tobacco sales, but said the force was “concentrating on a very small group of people”.

“We know where they are. We know how they’re communicating. We know their network here in Australia,” he said.

Maytham Hamad – the Perth-based brother of exiled Victorian “tobacco king” Kazem Hamad – was remanded in custody last month on charges of dealing with the proceeds of crime and possessing prohibited tobacco products, after having his luxury cars impounded following a raid on his Mount Pleasant apartment.

Police have previously alleged Kazem is calling the shots on a family crime syndicate from the Middle East, having been deported from Australia in 2023.

It is not suggested Maytham nor Kazem Hamad were involved in this week’s incidents.

Blanch also revealed a fire at a building on Albany Highway in Maddington on Thursday morning was similarly believed to be a response to the police crackdown.

“We certainly know after significant disruption to organised crime figures here in Western Australia, including significant wealth and asset seizures, all of a sudden we’ve had a number of … [what] would appear to be retaliation attacks,” he said.

“That is a classic organised crime tactic, and we won’t tolerate that here in Western Australia, so we’re going to go hard after those people, wherever they may be.”

The police commissioner pointed to the death of 27-year-old Melbourne woman Katie Tangey in a firebombing that Victorian police believe was a case of arsonists targeting the wrong house as an example of the escalating violence in the illegal tobacco scene.

“We have seen people die in Victoria for almost identical attacks,” he said.

“So the quicker we get on top of those who are acting outside of Western Australia, the better.”

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