Why you should stop buying illegal tobacco

MAKE no mistake, the grasping tentacles of organised crime are among us.

It’s one thing to suspect they’re behind the drug trade locally but it’s quite another for the police themselves to admit that “a fair percentage” of the specialist tobacco stores in the state have either been stood over by organised crime operatives or agreed willingly to sell illicit tobacco, either as unbranded loose-leaf tobacco or illegally imported cigarettes, and vapes.

In fact, they say 500-600 of the 800-plus specialist tobacco shops in Victoria are selling illicit tobacco. Of course, we know that figure could be higher.

And there are those that might dismiss the claims or try to laugh it off.

“If the government wasn’t taxing cigarettes so much, there wouldn’t be a black market,” they say.

But the reality is that government is placing high taxes on cigarettes for two main reasons, to fund the cost of the health response generated by smokers, and to try and get people to quit or not take up smoking in the first place.

The tax revenue is a side issue, but certainly government should be more accountable for the funds they collect and perhaps they should be putting more of that revenue into policing.

Police hit six tobacco stores in the state’s west last Thursday, including at Horsham, Stawell, Ararat, Warracknabeal and Nhill but they could just as easily have hit tobacco shops in Gippsland, likely with the same result.

They arrested seven people and seized more than 134,000 illicit cigarettes, 43kg of loose tobacco and 3655 vapes from those businesses, believed to be valued at over $350,000 in total. It’s the tip of a dirty iceberg.

Clearly the police know the extent of the illicit tobacco trade and who is involved. In fact Acting Commander Jason Kelly of the Victoria Police Crime Command has warned smokers not to buy illicit tobacco because it is directly lining the pockets of organised crime figures, who are in turn using the profits to import drugs and to carry out other nefarious activity.

The problem is this, the government has completely dropped the ball on crime and public safety.

While they’ve been pursuing their woke agenda, they’ve failed to properly resource the police, and they’ve also failed to properly manage immigration to this country.

And if you think that’s an unfounded remark, read this line from the police media release last Friday, about the state’s illicit tobacco market: “Police believe the syndicates are comprised of personnel from Middle Eastern Organised Crime groups and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, including the Finks OMCG.”

We’re going to hell in a hand basket folks and no amount of political spin can cover up the fact that the police know what’s going on but simply haven’t got the resources to deal with it, beyond keeping a lid on it, which they were doing until the stupid crooks themselves got greedy and started fire-bombing each other.