{"id":623652,"date":"2026-04-22T14:03:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/623652\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:03:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:03:35","slug":"australian-border-force-officials-seize-record-haul-of-illicit-tobacco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/623652\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Border Force officials seize record haul of illicit tobacco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A record number of illegal <a href=\"http:\/\/9news.com.au\/vaping\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"vapes\">vapes<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/9news.com.au\/smoking\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"tobacco\">tobacco<\/a> products have been intercepted by the Australian Border Force (ABF) in a major blow to the black market.<\/p>\n<p>Officers today served up a stern warning to anyone involved in the booming trade.<\/p>\n<p>The almost 1000-tonne bust &#8211; nearly three-quarters of it in <a href=\"http:\/\/9news.com.au\/new-south-wales\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"NSW\">NSW<\/a> &#8211; is one of the ABF&#8217;s biggest ever.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imageresizer.static9.net.au\/4YXvsq7_5AkS9CfzSGSizacIpsk=\/0x59:1586x952\/500x0\/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F3183b5f8-5140-41e3-9181-0be8630cb663\"   alt=\"\"\/>ABF customs compliance and enforcement Assistant Commissioner Tony Smith (9News)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That prevented more than $2 billion worth of duty being stolen from the Australian taxpayer,&#8221; ABF customs compliance and enforcement Assistant Commissioner Tony Smith said today.<\/p>\n<p>In just four months, hundreds of tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco and 800 million cigarettes have been seized.<\/p>\n<p>If laid end to end the cigarettes would stretch more than 71,000 kilometres, which is almost enough to wrap around Earth twice.<\/p>\n<p>Four million vapes were also among the seizures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/f85dc7c0-c421-4d73-a214-3d17f7672f8e.png\"   alt=\"\"\/>If laid end to end the cigarettes would stretch more than 71,000 kilometres, almost enough to wrap around the earth twice. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It reflects a concerted and targeted effort across all of our domains, from the air and sea, to the traveller and mail,&#8221; Operation Printwall commander Andrew Tankey said.<\/p>\n<p>The majority of illicit products stripped from the supply chain came from Asia.<\/p>\n<p>One woman arrived from Bali with boxes upon boxes of cigarettes, far more than the legal limit.<\/p>\n<p>Offshore, the ABF also blocked more than 35 million cigarettes and 560,000 vapes from even arriving into Australia.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/f068fc73-eebe-46a5-897c-b26b0002d5da.png\"   alt=\"\"\/>In just four months, hundreds of tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco and 800 million cigarettes have been seized. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Make no mistake, this is intelligence-led enforcement at pace and scale,&#8221; Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you move it, you store it or distribute it, you&#8217;re in our sights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A record number of illegal vapes and tobacco products have been intercepted by the Australian Border Force (ABF)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-623652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623652","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=623652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}