‘Earn or burn’: Gangs drive illegal-cigarette wars

As the most notorious member of “the world's most notorious rock band”, Tommy Lee has seen a few things. But even the Motley Crue drummer was shocked at his bill for cigarettes on a recent tour of Australia.

The American posted a photograph of the receipt on Instagram with the caption: “dollars 251.96 for four packs of smokes here in Melbourne!!!” Each pack of 25 Marlboro Golds cost A$62.99 (NZ$68).

Having pioneered plain packaging for cigarettes in 2012, Australia is now taxing smokers into submission. One in 10 Australian adults now partake, down from one in five 20 years ago.

Yet by making cigarettes prohibitively expensive, the government has also sparked a war between rival Middle Eastern organised crime gangs battling for control of a booming trade in illegal tobacco.

Violence more commonly associated with hard drugs – including gangland executions and arson attacks on tobacconists and restaurants – has escalated.

The key battleground is Melbourne and regional Victoria, where there is no tobacco-licensing regime. More than 40 arson attacks and fire-bombings on shops selling illicit tobacco products and vapes have taken place in the past six months.

Driving up taxes has gone too far, says Rohan Pike, who has helped the Australian Border Force to establish a task force targeting the illegal tobacco trade. “We've now got to the point where previously law-abiding citizens have no qualms about buying the cheaper product,” he said.

Illegal cigarettes, smuggled in from China, southeast Asia and the Gulf, are sold for A$18-A$20 a pack.

Hundreds of retailers have sprung up selling illegal tobacco and nicotine vapes. Some are owned by organised crime groups; others are extorted to sell products under the counter.

Under the gang policy of “earn or burn”, they are forced to pay a “tax” from A$1000 to A$2000 a week, or face the threat of having their shop burnt down.