Holy smokes: Illicit tobacco is being sold in Auckland church fundraisers
Auckland’s thriving tobacco black market now extends from the corner dairy to church fundraisers. George Block delves into the world of homegrown ‘chop’.
A man walks into a head-shop on a rundown West Auckland shopping strip.
He towers over the young worker behind the cabinets in the shop, which sells vaporisers and the paraphernalia of cannabis consumption.
But this customer is not after a new grinder or bong.
Instead, he wants an automatic, electric-powered cigarette filling machine, plus a box of 10,000 paper tubes to feed into the device.
He’ll also grab a shredder to turn dried, loose-leaf tobacco into the fine material the filling machine will jam into the tubes as it whirrs away spitting out smokes.
In total, he’s spent more than $1000.
His investment will soon pay for itself, because this man is making a killing selling homegrown tobacco on the black market.
The tobacco is either sold as loose-leaf material for roll-yourown cigarettes or rolled into tailor-made smokes called ‘‘whites’’ by the authorities.
It is known on the street as ‘‘chop’’, ‘‘chop-chop’’, ‘‘Tongan chop’’ or ‘‘Tongan tobacco’’ – the latter two arising from its prevalence in the Tongan community.
(Chop is not to be confused with the mixture of cannabis and tobacco also referred to as chop.)
In New Zealand, it’s legal to grow your own tobacco for personal use, up to 15kg per year.
However, a man working at the West Auckland head shop, who spoke to the Sunday StarTimes on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the buying habits of some of his customers suggested larger-scale production.
Some customers buy a box of tubes, containing 10,000 smokes, every two or three months.
At the same time they will pick up a new shredder or filling machine, indicating they are getting a fair bit of use, he said.
‘‘This kind of store ... you don’t ask questions.’’
The market for chop runs alongside the trade in illicit cigarettes smuggled into the country, usually via shipping containers, then sold on social media or via corner dairies for less than the price of legal, regulated and taxed cigarettes.
But there are significant differences between the two markets.
Pre-rolled Asian cigarettes are imported by organised crime groups – including outlaw motorcycle gangs – using the same sophisticated supply lines that they use for methamphetamine, likely aided by corrupt border staff.
Chop industry.
Well-placed sources said production was often a backyard affair, with a significant number of small-scale growers operating in tandem, supplying a central house where a garage would be used to dry, process and bag the tobacco.
It then makes its way to consumers via networks including church groups, sports clubs and workplace smoko rooms.
Some dairies sell the product, and it is known to be available at the Saturday markets in south Auckland, but it is difficult for outsiders to obtain.
A Sunday Star-Times reporter was able to easily buy a packet of smuggled cigarettes from an east Auckland dairy but attempts to purchase chop were unsuccessful.
The head-shop worker said he’d had a couple of elderly woman come into his store keen to buy what they called ‘‘Tongan tobacco’’, but he had sent them packing.
An intermediary was able to procure a bag of ‘‘Tapaka Tonga’’ loose-leaf tobacco, sold via clandestine networks at a south Auckland factory.
It is unclear whether the tobacco was manufactured in New Zealand or Tonga.
Tapaka refers to loose-leaf hand-rolled tobacco leaves widely available for sale in Tonga as a cheaper alternative to namebrand cigarettes.
The label on the bag features a number linking back to a Tongan land-line. is more of a cottage
A World Bank study found it cost less than half the price of a packet of cigarettes and accounts for about 20 per cent of the market. Tapaka is often labelled as ‘‘organic’’, leading people to mistakenly believe it doesn’t carry the same risks as other cigarettes, the study found.
Mihi Blair (Nga¯ti Wha¯tua) is operations manager for Procare, overseeing the Ready Steady Quit contract, the smoking cessation service in the Auckland and Waitemata¯ DHBs.
Blair was formerly general manager of Tobacco Control Advocacy at Ha¯pai Te Hauora, which holds the Ma¯ori public health contract for Auckland.
The issue is personal for Blair, whose father died from preventable lung disease.
‘‘Homegrown tobacco, especially in Tongan churches, is a huge issue for our service,’’ she said.
‘‘They’ve normalised it as it’s not real tobacco, it’s not going to kill you, and they’re actually using it for fundraising methods as well.’’
Her organisation’s staff frequently encounter clients who mistakenly believe homegrown won’t kill them.
‘‘It’s really hard to reframe it to say whatever you’re burning, it’s still going to kill you. It’s been normalised that it doesn’t have the thousand chemicals ... and you’re helping your church group as well.’’ The skyrocketing price of tobacco was a major driver for people wanting to quit, but homegrown chop was undermining this and its relatively cheap price reduced people’s willingness to give up, Blair said.
In her view, the burgeoning illicit market, which Customs estimates at 6-7 per cent of total tobacco consumption but the industry views as closer to 12 per cent, is the result of the everincreasing tobacco taxes.
The government is not doing enough to combat the illicit trade, and the authorities should be going into the stores where it is sold, she said.
‘‘It’s got to go beyond just the border control area of enforcement.’’ A recent budget bid by Customs asking for more funding for a new work program combatting illicit tobacco was unsuccessful. taken ‘‘It’s not seriously enough.’’
Blair said the sale of tobacco via church fundraisers is symptomatic of underinvestment in those communities.
‘‘If there was more money in health and social and education services, churches wouldn’t have to use this mechanism to help their people.’’
The trade in homegrown chop is a matter for Customs, rather than police, as tobacco is an excisable product.
Customs investigations manager Bruce Berry said the supply chain for chop changed drastically after it closed a loophole in the legislation allowing the personal importation of up to 25kg of tobacco leaf for use as a natural pesticide.
‘‘We were able to show that loophole was being exploited.’’
Now, a permit is required to import loose-leaf tobacco.
‘‘It does fall within our gambit of operations, and we have prosecuted people for the illicit manufacture of cigarettes.’’
Customs has taken action against people involved in the chop trade.
One man, currently before the courts, is accused of importing loose-leaf tobacco and manufacturing counterfeit Double Happiness cigarettes.
‘‘He had imported manufacturing equipment to facilitate that process and indeed that’s what led us to him.’’
Berry said Customs has also nabbed a man selling homegrown, locally manufactured tobacco via Facebook.
Like Blair, Berry said the high price of tobacco has sparked the explosion of the tobacco black market.
‘‘The prices that we pay for tobacco, like we do for drugs, are among the highest in the world.
‘‘That makes us an incredibly attractive market for smuggling and organised crime.’’
‘‘Homegrown tobacco, especially in Tongan churches, is a huge issue for our service. They’ve normalised it as it’s not real tobacco, it’s not going to kill you, and they’re actually using it for fundraising methods as well.’’ Mihi Blair