The Australian Border Force (ABF) seized thousands of vapes from stores in three states amid stricter vape-selling laws, that took effect on July 1.

On August 8, the ABF’s Illicit Tobacco Taskforce (ITTF), along with NSW Health inspectors and the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA), confiscated nearly 4000 disposable vapes and about 110,000 illicit tobacco cigarettes from tobacconists on NSW’s Central Coast.

The government agencies believe that the tobacconists have links to organised criminal networks.

Prior to that day, the ABF ITTF executed a Commonwealth search warrant at a storage facility in South Australia, where they impounded 319,800 illicit tobacco cigarettes.

On August 6, South Australia’s Consumer and Business Services and ABF ITTF took possession of more than 37,000 cigarette sticks, 126kg of shisha tobacco, 27 individual cigars, 2372 disposable vapes, and 2.3kg of loose leaf tobacco from tobacco stores in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

Also on August 6, more than 61,000 cigarette sticks and more than 15kg of loose-leaf tobacco were seized from tobacconists in Queensland’s Gold Coast.

“During this activity, officers identified illicit tobacco being sold under the counter for discounted prices – not only does this avoid the tax excise, but the purchasing of this product only continues to fund the criminal behaviour of the syndicates importing and supplying it,” said Erin Dale, interim illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner.

“We will continue to disrupt these syndicate’s business models, and some of the best approaches to doing so are by joining forces with our partner agencies, sharing intelligence, and using all available agency powers and legislation, to dismantle these criminal operations,” said Ken McKern, ABF commander.