The facefit image,compiled from CCTV footage,is of a man police believe is linked to a house fire that killed innocent woman Katie Tangey in January.
The tobacco black market is thriving and,as senior economics correspondent Shane Wright tells The Morning Edition podcast,that’s creating problems for all Australians.
Alcohol levies are raising more money for the budget than cigarettes as documents reveal Treasury was unprepared for the financial fallout from vaping and black market tobacco.
Alerts circulated across state and federal agencies warned of large-scale tobacco smuggling into Australia,including some that may have been tacitly supported by Chinese government officials.
Police say Katie Tangey’s death was entirely predictable as violent organised crime gangs fought their tobacco turf war.
A woman who died trapped in a burning home became the first civilian fatality in the gangland war over control of Melbourne’s illicit tobacco trade.
Criminal syndicates have called a truce over tobacco shops in one area of Melbourne as experts declare our crime-fighting strategy a failure that only a radical rethink can fix.
Emergency crews arrived to find the tobacconist fully engulfed in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Kazem Hamad’s crime syndicate now controls several hundred underground tobacco retailers,and it’s netting “monster” business for the underworld kingpin.
“One thing we don’t want to do is jeopardise the safety of innocent Queenslanders,” Police Minister Dan Purdie said.