LAUREN FERRI
23 June 2018
DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
- Six people now charged over involvement in tobacco smuggling syndicate
- The illegal operation was operating through Melbourne International Airport
- Australian Border Force set up an operation to investigate the illegal operation
- In less than a year, 94 individuals were found with illicit tobacco in Melbourne
Six people have been charged over a tobacco smuggling syndicate allegedly operating through Melbourne International Airport.
The insane bust halted the flow of almost three million illegal cigarettes, police said.
Four of the accused Chinese nationals, who appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on May 25, pleaded guilty to the charges and have since been removed from Australia.
A 33-year-old male arrested on January 19 and a 31-year-old female arrested on June 7 are still before the courts.
The Australian Border Force collected information through an operation targeting passengers travelling from South East Asian ports to Melbourne airport.
In less than a year, 94 people were caught with large amounts of illicit tobacco in their luggage and removed from the country.
Over the course of the entire operation, beginning in July 2017, more than 2.7 million illicit products have been found.
They have been worth approximately $1,940,000 in evaded duty.The long-running investigation disrupted the illicit tobacco market in Victoria
Commander of Investigations at ABF, Graeme Grosse, said that the long-running investigation has greatly disrupted the illicit tobacco market in Victoria.
‘We are definitely seeing a large amount of illicit tobacco being seized in Victoria and we believe we’ve dismantled a criminal network that was a major player in the market and that was making significant profits from this activity,’ he said.
The maximum penalty for smuggling tobacco into Australia is 10 years in prison.
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