A criminal operation with the potential to produce millions of cigarettes a day has been thwarted after federal officials raided a Sydney storage unit belonging to an illicit tobacco syndicate.
The raid on the Rouse Hill storage facility last week uncovered a tobacco manufacturing machine capable of producing over 3.5 million cigarettes daily, as well as 7.5 kilograms of loose-leaf tobacco, almost 6000 vaping device components, and eight large boxes suspected to be counterfeit tobacco packaging.
Australian Border Force (ABF) swooped after it began surveillance on the unit earlier this month.
The ABF and NSW Police are investigating those linked to the storage unit. Officers have scoured CCTV footage from the site and spoken to neighbours as part of inquiries. No arrests have followed the raids.
The discovery of the manufacturing machine, the first detected by border officials in some time, raises questions about the scale of domestic illegal cigarette production.
Efforts to quash the illegal tobacco market are predominantly focused on importation.
The ABF seized more than 2.5 billion cigarette sticks in the 2024-25 financial year, 320 per cent more than what was recorded four years prior, with the majority of imports arriving from Asia and the Middle East.
The federal government’s illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner found last month that illegal cigarettes now represented at least half of the Australian tobacco market, with the exploding trade costing the taxpayer $43 billion since 2020.
Samuel Harnden, acting superintendent of the ABF’s Illicit Tobacco Taskforce, said there “are clear and established links between local illicit tobacco manufacturing in Australia and organised criminal syndicates”.
“Every illicit tobacco purchase provides funding to these criminal syndicates, giving them the funds that drive further violence and serious criminal activity,” Harnden said.
More than 1.6 million illicit cigarettes have been seized in the eight weeks since NSW Health was granted extraordinary powers to shut down outlets suspected of selling illicit tobacco or vapes.
It has resulted in the closure of 52 stores, including a Kogarah outlet just 50 metres from the electorate officer of Premier Chris Minns.
The powers allow NSW Health to issue a 90-day store closure, and seek court orders that would grant a 12-month shutdown.
More stores are expected to come under the microscope of health officials in the coming year, as the state government presses on with its crackdown on the illegal tobacco trade.
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Daniel Lo Surdo is a breaking news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He previously helmed the national news live blog for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.