The thriving trade in black market cigarettes is perhaps Cobram's worst-kept secret.
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Owen Sinclair
It’s perhaps Cobram’s worst-kept secret.
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Business is booming in the trade of black market cigarettes, with multiple businesses across Cobram suspected to be in on the action, even as new laws introduced by the Victorian Government are soon to come into force.
“Twenty-two years ago, when I started at Cobram CI, these shops weren’t in existence,” Cobram CIU Detective Sergeant Marcus Boyd said.
“Not just in Cobram, but other surrounding towns. What I can see is they have popped up.”
At one particular store, widely suspected to be involved in the racket, countless customers enter and exit through the front door every day.
The Courier has confirmed that there, for example, a pack of 20 Manchester Sapphires with branded packaging will set you back just $15 — paid in cash.
A second business in town is rumoured to be in on the action too.
Driving trade is a simple fact: customers can purchase their smokes for a fraction of the $40 to $60 they’d pay at a legitimate retailer.
Smoking rates have declined over the past few decades thanks to control efforts, according to the Victorian Department of Health.
But the latest data from the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer indicates that the prevalence of daily smokers in Moira Shire (15.2 per cent) remains far above the Victorian average of 10.9 per cent.
In March, police attached to the VIPER Taskforce seized over 27,000 illicit cigarettes during a search of a business on Cobram’s High St.
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Respected for his work investigating organised crime in Moira Shire, Det Sgt Boyd characterised the behaviour of those who broke tobacco laws as ‘brazen’, saying police certainly did not turn a blind eye to the illicit trade.
“We’ve had successful involvement in shutting down at least two shops in Cobram and Yarrawonga in recent times, as well as continuing investigations into others in Cobram and surrounding towns,” he said.
In Australia, a tobacco product is ruled illicit when no excise duty is paid on it to the Australian Taxation Office.
This month, the price of a legal pack of smokes went up, thanks to the excise rate increasing, as it does twice a year.
But what isn’t covered by the excise creates a ‘tobacco tax gap’, which in 2022-23 was estimated to be $2.7 billion in lost revenue that the Federal Government says is money not spent on critical public services.
At the state level, the Victorian Government in December 2024 passed a raft of amendments to its tobacco laws.
Significantly, the new laws will see the implementation of a licensing scheme, which aims to protect legitimate traders from being undercut by those selling tobacco illegally.
From February next year, Tobacco Licensing Victoria, the peak regulatory body, will begin enforcing compliance with the scheme.
Individuals who are found to sell illicit tobacco may face penalties of up to $366,318 or up to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Meanwhile, businesses found to be selling the illicit products may face a penalty of more than $1.8 million.
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