Why Illegal Tobacco Is Exploding in Australia | Kelly Crossley & Rowan Pike
Description
Illegal tobacco is no longer a back-alley trade — it’s a billion-dollar criminal economy fuelling arson, extortion, murders and a full-blown underworld war across Australia. In this explosive episode of Real Crime, Adam Shand uncovers how half of all tobacco consumed in Australia has slipped into the shadows, and why the government’s own excise regime is driving the demand.
Adam speaks first with freight-forwarding director Kelly Crossley, who is on the frontline of the smuggling pipeline. She reveals how syndicates exploit the container trade, steal legitimate ABNs, forge identities and slip tonnes of illicit cigarettes through overstretched border systems — sometimes within sight of police stations.
Then Adam sits down with former AFP officer Rowan Pike, who established Australia’s first illegal tobacco strike team. For a decade, Pike warned that sky-high excise, lax policy, and a lack of coordinated enforcement would create exactly the chaos we’re seeing now. Pike breaks down how the black market exploded, why seizures barely make a dent and why Australia is now facing a criminal landscape more profitable than the drug trade.
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