Make no mistake about it, Victoria is in the midst of another gangland war, one that is the worst and most vicious since the infamous Underbelly wars that broke out in Melbourne more than two decades ago.
The main protagonists may not attract the same public attention that the likes of Carl Williams, Mick Gatto and Tony Mokbel once did, but the new line-up of underworld figures should still prompt public concern.
An investigator bags items from the scene of a tobacco shop fire in Glenroy in October.Credit: Jason South
What has changed is the backdrop. The Melbourne gangland wars were, in many instances, a fight to the death for control and influence over the city’s highly profitable illegal drug trade. This time around, at first glance, the impetus would appear far more prosaic.
Small tobacco stores are a staple of virtually every suburban shopping strip. While health campaigns and restrictions on smoking have turned the stores into retail pariahs, criminal gangs have found them a happy hunting ground in the pursuit of sizeable profits.
The rules of engagement are rudimentary. Criminal gangs use violent threats against tobacco store owners to extort weekly payments of cash and to coerce them into selling illegally imported cigarettes. Many store owners who have failed to play ball have found their premises being firebombed.
The profit motive is powerful. A packet of cigarettes bought for $2 to $5 overseas and smuggled into Australia can be sold for $16 to $20. A legally bought packet would cost up to $40 more. An underworld source told Chris Vedelago, The Age’s law and justice editor, that a full-sized shipping container, which can hold up to 15 million cigarettes, is worth about $4 million in profit.
A big payday is not the only attraction for crime gangs. Illicit tobacco trafficking has mostly been viewed as a victimless crime, which translates to far more lenient penalties compared with the importation of hard drugs.
As the underworld source told Vedelago: “You can make money easier with cigarettes than drugs.”
Vedelago says the shakedowns have been running for more than a year but flew largely under the radar until the gangs began torching recalcitrant retailers and the “protected” shops of their rivals.
In response, police established an illicit-tobacco taskforce in early October in an effort to stem the growing violence. With the arrest and charging this week of alleged gangland boss Fadi Haddara, who police claim has long-standing ties to the illicit tobacco trade (albeit Haddara was charged in relation to alleged firearm possession), the taskforce is making some progress. But with more than 30 tobacco shops and other businesses, including two Docklands restaurants linked to Haddara, having been firebombed since March, there is little expectation that the violence is over.
More needs to be done than forming a police taskforce. Victoria is one of the last jurisdictions in Australia to not require traders to obtain a licence to sell tobacco products. Victoria Police is in talks with the Health Department to strengthen regulations. The Australian Border Force is also looking to beef up penalties for tobacco smuggling to include custodial sentences of up to 10 years.
When the Melbourne gangland wars were at their peak, the state government and police were, quite rightly, under enormous pressure to stem the bloodshed. It’s time for that same urgency to be put into practice. Criminal gangs are acting with impunity, making a mockery of our borders and a battleground of our streets.
Governments at all levels should wield their full enforcement powers to rid Victoria of this latest outbreak of violence. This is particularly so when the governments themselves have created this entirely predictable business opportunity for organised crime with the rapid increase in the price of tobacco products linked to taxation.
Consumers, too, might do well to remember when buying the bargain cigarettes just whom they are bankrolling.
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Urgent action is needed to tackle tobacco shop wars
13
0
19.12.2023
Make no mistake about it, Victoria is in the midst of another gangland war, one that is the worst and most vicious since the infamous Underbelly wars that broke out in Melbourne more than two decades ago.
The main protagonists may not attract the same public attention that the likes of Carl Williams, Mick Gatto and Tony Mokbel once did, but the new line-up of underworld figures should still prompt public concern.
An investigator bags items from the scene of a tobacco shop fire in Glenroy in October.Credit: Jason South
What has changed is the backdrop. The Melbourne gangland wars were, in many instances, a fight to the death for control and influence over the city’s highly profitable illegal drug trade. This time around, at first glance, the impetus would appear far more prosaic.
Small tobacco stores are a staple of virtually every suburban shopping strip. While health campaigns and restrictions on smoking have turned the stores into retail pariahs, criminal gangs have found them a happy hunting ground in the pursuit of sizeable........
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