Organised crime targets Perth vape sellers with mafia-style intimidation, say police
- by Admin
- June 26, 2024
Organised crime gangs are threatening shop owners who illegally sell vapes and nicotine pouches with violence and intimidation if they don’t give them a cut of their profits, according to WA’s police commissioner.
Col Blanch revealed the classic mafia-style stand over tactic was being used in the massive black market for nicotine and related products.
“We’ll go after them and we’ll go after them hard,” he said.
Disposable, single use vapes have been banned in Australia since the start of the year, and other vapes containing nicotine can only be legally sold from pharmacies from July 1.
Nicotine pouches, also known as ‘lippers’ or ‘snus’ when they contain tobacco, cannot legally be imported or sold either.
But single use vapes and tins of nicotine pouches can still be very easily bought and are commonly used.
The ABC walked into several stores in Perth’s entertainment district where people were lining up to buy disposable vapes over the counter, and where nicotine pouches were on offer as well.
Quick sales, no checks, no questions asked.
In some cases, the nicotine pouches were kept just out of sight behind the counter, and in others, the store person opened a safe to take the tins out.
Illegal vapes come at cost
But it comes at a cost — both financial and potentially to the business owners’ own physical safety.
“Sadly, the shops that choose to sell anything under the table — illicit tobacco or vapes that are illegal to sell — know that they’re doing the wrong thing,” Commissioner Blanch said.
“Organised crime will take advantage of those small business owners and say, ‘You’re doing the wrong thing. So you pay me half of your profits’.
“That’s a bad situation for everyone. So my advice is for small business owners: don’t sell illegal goods.”
Border Force cracking down
But that is about the extent of police involvement, as Department of Health officers are the ones responsible for regulating the unlawful sale of vapes and nicotine pouches.
The department said it frequently conducted routine compliance checks on tobacconists.
“Where identified, the products were seized and destroyed, and the retailer formally warned,” the department said.
Criminal charges and fines can also be imposed.
The Australian Border Force (ABF) works with the department and police to identify organised crime networks bringing the illegal products into the country.
The ABF has noticed a massive increase in nicotine pouches being illegally imported into the country since the start of the year, coinciding exactly with the ban on single-use vapes.
It has confiscated more than 1.3 million nicotine pouches since then, compared to 137,000 over the entire previous two years.
ABF superintendent James Payne told the ABC earlier this month criminal entities were being much of the illicit trade.
“The reason why they have moved into this is because they haven’t been able to sell the same amount of vapes,” he said.
WA Police said it was waiting on the other side of the border to crack down on the crime networks inside the state.
“The part for police is to go after the organised crime entities and stamp them out and kick them out of WA or put them in prison,” Commissioner Blanch said.
Last week, WA Police working with the ABF and Victoria police cracked open what they described as an “extremely dangerous” $10 million illicit tobacco syndicate with links to Middle Eastern organised crime and potentially bikie gangs.
They arrested 13 people as part of raids on properties in Perth and across the state, seizing 1.4 tonnes of illegal loose-leaf tobacco, 41,000 vapes, almost 5.9 million cigarettes, and almost $2 million in cash.
The investigation was launched earlier this year after several arson incidents in Perth, and amid a turf war across Melbourne with a spate of fire bombings.
Police warned the seizure was just a fraction of what was out there.
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