Criminals view the trade of illicit tobacco in Australia as a low-risk, high-rew…

Criminals view the trade of illicit tobacco in Australia as a low-risk, high-reward enterprise. Illicit tobacco supports serious organised crime groups (OCGs), weakens Australia’s economic recovery and damages legitimate businesses.
Globally, investigations suggest OCGs are using the proceeds of illicit tobacco sales to fund other serious criminal activities, such as drugs and firearm trafficking, money laundering and terrorism financing.
Another high price of the illicit tobacco trade is undermining government health initiatives and defrauding the Commonwealth millions of dollars per annum.
In the 2019-2020 FY, the Australian Border Force recorded 157,549 undeclared tobacco detections,… More