This Durry Fiend Tried to Smuggle 9.5 Million Cigarettes Into Australia

Last week, a 28-year-old man tried to smuggle nearly 10 million durries into Western Australia. Border authorities discovered 47,500 cartons of Canyon cigarettes hidden inside a shipping container that was intercepted at a screening facility in Fremantle. That’s 9.5 million darts, for those playing at home—all packaged to look commercially viable, and estimated to be worth about $7.6 million in evaded duty, according to the ABC. The ABF has described it as a record seizure for the state.

"This is by far the biggest illicit cigarette seizure made in WA," said ABF regional commander Rod O'Donnell. "Importantly, we’ve been able to prevent the Commonwealth being defrauded of more than $7.66 million in legitimate revenue."

Rod explained that every container shipment is screened upon arrival into Australia, and in this case the cigarettes were detected after officials noticed certain “anomalies” with the x-ray image. So they called in the detector dogs.

"They indicated the presence of tobacco," said Rod. "In this particular case, the product was actually commercially packaged and had all the looks of what would be legitimate products here in Australia.”

ABF officials found a further 31,000 cigarettes at a home in Morley, north-eastern Perth, on Friday after performing raids on two separate houses and a tobacconist. The 28-year-old was arrested at one of the homes, and has since been charged with one count of importing tobacco products with the intention of defrauding the revenue.

Rod stressed that the illegal importation of tobacco is a global issue, as a lot of the profits made from the illicit sale of cigarettes in Australia—through non-traditional outlets such as pop-up stores—go back into funding criminal activity both locally and abroad.

"The ABF is committed to working with our international partners to detect, investigate and disrupt those involved in the illegal tobacco trade," he said in a statement on the ABF website. "And to stop the profits from these smuggling operations from funding further criminal activity."

Australia’s illicit tobacco market is thought to be worth about $600 million a year in evaded revenue. The maximum penalty for smuggling the stuff is 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to five times the amount of duty evaded. For the 28-year-old Morley man—who was granted bail on Saturday and is expected to face court again this Friday—that fine would add up to the ballpark of some $38 million.