WA’s top cop wants the power to shut down convenience stores and smoke shops that illegally sell tobacco over fears a ‘tobacco war’ is brewing in the state.
Police Commissioner Col Blanch told Radio 6PR this morning that organised crime gangs from the eastern states had begun infiltrating WA’s illicit tobacco trade, with two shootings and two firebombings at the weekend.
Police outside a Brisbane tobacco shop which was destroyed by a firebombing in May. Credit: Nine News
“[They] think they’re going to replicate what they’ve been doing in Sydney and Melbourne and sometimes in Queensland by having some standover and extortion tactics on those that are selling illicit tobacco in convenience stores and trying to dominate the markets by using tactics like shooting at those stores and firebombing them,” he said.
“A lot of the people who are contracted to conduct the shootings or the firebombings are actually contracted over the dark web or through anonymising applications, and often they don’t know each other, so working through the organised crime network and finding the linkages is challenging but not impossible for law enforcement.
“We’re already executing search warrants, we’re searching houses, we’re seizing devices, we’re making good progress.”
Blanch said selling illicit tobacco was already illegal in WA, but the meager fines were not acting as a deterrent for shop owners.
He wants WA to follow in the footsteps of other states and draft new laws to be able to close down businesses that sell tobacco.
“I think the penalties and consequences of doing it need to be far greater because at the moment it’s quite a lucrative business where these shops can earn thousands of dollars, so a small fine is not really going to be a deterrent,” Blanch said.
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