An E-cigarette Dealer Boasts About Illegally Bypassing Customs, And Australia's Border Control Faces Challenges

An e-cigarette dealer boasts about illegally bypassing customs, and Australia's border control faces challenges

Australia's illegal tobacco market is in turmoil again. On social media platforms, an illegal e-cigarette dealer boasted about bypassing border control, sparking public concerns about black market transactions and gang conflicts, calling on the government to strengthen supervision.

 

According to the Daily Telegraph on September 3, the Australian public called for tougher measures to deal with the problem due to concerns that black market tobacco and e-cigarette transactions may trigger gang wars.

 

In June this year, on some websites including Facebook, some social accounts boasted about their actions of shipping e-cigarettes into Australia, while also publicly advertising their products.

 

One of the e-cigarette dealers named "VapeWholesale Top" once posted: "The reason why we dare to trade with Australian customers: our transportation team has the ability to pass the Australian customs scanner."

A social account boasts that they can ship e-cigarettes into Australia | Source: Facebook

 

Another post published in broken English reads, "Now in the Australian market, e-cigarettes that arrived in Australia today, were sold by Australians today, and then sold out." It added that the products were sent to Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.

 

This week, New South Wales police intercepted a ship carrying more than two tons of illegal tobacco, but it was allowed to continue sailing. After the ship was first intercepted in Newcastle, the Australian Border Force told the police that they could not seize the cargo or bring the ship into the port. The ship was monitored until it left Australian waters.

 

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke praised the government's handling of the matter on Monday (2nd).

 

"This successful operation sends a clear message to anyone who tries to import illegal items into Australia: You will be driven away before you start."

Meanwhile, coalition MPs said that not enough measures were taken to solve the problem and mentioned that illegal imports were still being promoted on these social media pages.

 

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said,

 

"The Albanese government's half-hearted, underfunded crackdown on vaping is, unsurprisingly, being flouted by criminal smugglers. The gangland war to control this lucrative market in our suburbs will get much worse if we don't act decisively."

 

Shadow health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said the Coalition had pledged A$250 million (US$170 million) to tackle the problem.

 

Health Minister Mark Butler said he had written to Facebook's owner Meta to ensure they were complying with Australian laws prohibiting the public advertising of vaping. Butler added that the Therapeutic Goods Administration would "immediately investigate these pages."

 

"These pages are blatantly breaking the law and the government will not sit idly by and let this happen."

 

An Australian Border Force (ABF) spokesman said more than 2.9 million vaping products had been seized since January 1 this year.

 

"We continue to seize a significant number of illicit shipments through our ocean and air cargo channels, as well as through mail imports. Border enforcement is very adept at locating and detecting illegal imports attempting to evade inspection."