UP IN SMOKES

THE underbelly of North Queensland’s illegal tobacco trade has been exposed with two businesswomen lifting the lid on the “organised crime” setting up shop in Townsville. The under-the-counter trade, in which shops sell tobacco brought into the country or grown illegally, is damaging North Queensland’s legal tobacconists, and cost the Australian government more than $900m last year alone.

A tobacco industry insider told the Bulletin the illicit tobacco trade was run by bikie gangs, and was more profitable, and far less risky than the standard drug trade. With legal business owners being threatened, and some owners considering their future in the industry, the two business owners say it is time the state government stepped in. Meanwhile, the Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) has been working with the tobacco industry and federal and state governments to make it harder for under-the-counter traders to prosper.