UP IN SMOKE
The UK Connection to Australia's Gang War Over Illicit Tobacco
A violent gang war for control of the billion dollar Australian black market in cigarettes has its roots in the UK and an epic court battle twenty years ago, The Upsetter reveals after a recent visit down under.
Aussie gangsters with family ties to the Middle East are locked in tit-for-tat shootings and arson attacks that have claimed the first innocent victim of the tobacco war.
The violence is fuelled by the low risk-high profit from smuggling fags over the trafficking of drugs.
The Australian government is a world leader in using high taxes to reduce the appeal of smoking, much to the anger of Big Tobacco, but the health benefits have come at a price.
The cheapest pack of 20 duty paid cigarettes costs an Aussie smoker around $33 (£16) of which over 90% goes to the government. By contrast, they can buy smuggled fags for $13 (£7) per pack, with all the profit going to gangsters untroubled by the low prison sentence for duty evasion.
Key gangs, mainly of Lebanese origin, formed a “commission” to control pricing, but that truce fell apart last year, according to state police.
This January, a key underworld figure was assassinated in Melbourne sparking a new phase of the war.
Meanwhile, legitimate tobacco shops continue to have their businesses taken off them by terror. Alternatively, they are offered the choice of ‘burn or earn’ - sell smuggled cigarettes or watch your premises go up in smoke.
Only a fraction of smuggled fags from the Far and Middle East are being seized by Australian Border Force. One brand features prominently.
Manchester, with its red packaging, leans heavily on the iconography of the footballing city and London to attract overseas smokers.
The brand is produced legally in Dubai by a company controlled by a Syrian doctor with a presence on the international diplomatic stage and a registered address in central London.
Earlier this month, the untold story of how Manchester became the smugglers’ choice was probed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship current affairs strand Four Corners, with the help of The Upsetter.
For those interested in the UK connection to the gang war down under, spark up and take a long drag on this.
