The 7-hectare fields of mature plants were worth more than $13m in lost tax revenue

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Six tonnes of illegal tobacco leaves and vast fields of mature plants worth more than $13m in lost tax have been seized on a rural property in the Northern Territory.

This bust on the sophisticated, 7-hectare crop outside Katherine was the first successful strike by a taskforce bringing together agencies including the Australian Tax Office and Australian Border Force.

Three separate crops of plants – many more than 2-metres tall – were discovered at the property, along with shipping containers used to dry the illicit product, and an extensive irrigation system.

It was the first tobacco seizure in the territory, with the plants growing well outside the growing season and thousands of kilometres from established growing areas.

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“To anyone seeking to profit from the illegal tobacco trade, the message is clear, there is nowhere to hide,” ATO deputy commissioner Will Day said.

“We will continue to work with our partner agencies to find, seize and destroy illegal tobacco wherever it is grown.”

Authorities were tight-lipped on the intelligence that led to the bust, and would not say how many people were involved in the operation, nor whether any arrests were made at the property.

Asked whether it was opportunists or a sophisticated criminal operation behind the crop, Day said organised criminal syndicates were generally responsible for the illegal tobacco trade.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The taskforce found three crops of mature tobacco plants; leaves drying in shipping containers and an extensive irrigation system at the Northern Territory property. Photograph: ABF

Sophisticated networks spread illegal tobacco across the country, with authorities believing the intercepted crop could have been distributed nationally.

ABF assistant commissioner Sharon Huey said criminals involved in the illicit tobacco market were raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Huey said people may think it fairly harmless to purchase a cheap pack of illegal cigarettes, but warned the consequences could be dire.

“The profits they make are going into more serious and more insidious types of crime,” she said.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the impact of illicit tobacco.”

The illegal tobacco trade costs the federal government about $600m a year in lost revenue.

The tax office has executed 33 seizures since July 2016, netting 221 tonnes of illicit tobacco worth about $192m in duties.

Officers have detected 110,000 shipments of illicit tobacco at Australia’s borders in the past year, seizing almost 240m cigarettes and 217m tonnes of tobacco worth more than $356m in evaded duty.