A joint operation between the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Queensland Police Service (QPS) has delivered “one of the largest” tobacco busts in the state’s history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Operation Xray Modred was initiated in February by the QPS’s Money Laundering Unit to target suspected money laundering activities linked to an organised crime syndicate.<\/p>\n
Investigations led police to identify suspicious activity at a storage facility in Brendale, in the Moreton Bay region north of Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Over three days in August, ABF officers executed warrants across 17 storage sheds in Rothwell, North Lakes and Brendale.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The operation led to warrants being executed at 17 storage facilities in the Moreton Bay region. (Supplied: Australian Border Force)<\/p>\n
They located more than 30 million cigarettes, 395,000 vapes and more than 4,650 kilograms of tobacco.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the same time, QPS detectives, in collaboration with Taskforce Masher and Queensland Health compliance officers executed warrants at eight tobacconists and six residential addresses.<\/p>\n
They located a further 450,000 illicit cigarette, 6,000 vapes, 500 kilograms of tobacco and $1 million in cash.<\/p>\n
Across the two operations, the total duty evaded for the seizures of cigarettes and tobacco is estimated to be over $53.8 million, while the estimated street value of vapes is around $20 million.<\/p>\n
One of largest busts for the state<\/p>\n
The total duty evaded for the seizures of cigarettes and tobacco is estimated to be more than $53.8 million. (Supplied: Australian Border Force)<\/p>\n
ABF Acting Assistant Commissioner North James Copeman said the collaboration had helped deliver historic results.<\/p>\n
“This is one of the largest illicit tobacco busts in Queensland’s history,” he said.<\/p>\n
“In less than a week, the ABF and our partners have put a significant dent in two major illicit tobacco networks.<\/p>\n
“The ABF is committed to not only disrupting but also dismantling these criminal networks exploiting the tobacco trade and profiting at the community’s expense.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Investigations by the QPS and ABF led to information about suspicious storage facilities in the Moreton Bay region, north of Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Queensland Acting Premier Jarrod Bleijie has applauded the efforts by agencies to confiscate items.<\/p>\n
“This [result] shows that the government is cracking down on illegal tobacco and illegal vapes, we make no apology for that,” Mr Bleijie said.<\/p>\n
“The state government has a zero tolerance approach to illegal vapes, tobacco and drugs \u2026 we’ll keep giving police the resources and putting laws in place [to stop the trade].”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A joint operation between the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Queensland Police Service (QPS) has delivered “one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-107997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}