An Australian Senate committee has formally labeled the country’s tobacco tax hikes an “unprecedented market failure” and a failure of public policy, recommending an immediate freeze on planned increases. Years of regular tax hikes pushed legal cigarette packs to nearly 60 AUD (42 USD), unintentionally building a lucrative black market run by transnational criminal cartels.
Read moreTag Archive for: Black Market
Australian authorities face a severe public safety challenge as the country’s anti-smoking policies drive a violent black market. While daily smoking rates fell to a record low of 5.6%, police report that criminal gangs now control roughly 80% of the nation’s tobacco trade.
Read moreThe Mexican Senate voted 97–0 to approve a reform to the General Tobacco Control Law, establishing strict advertising bans and expanding smoke-free public spaces. Sent to the Federal Executive for enactment, the bill excludes electronic cigarettes and vapes, reigniting debate over market regulation and illicit trade.
Read moreOrganized criminal syndicates have become the primary suppliers of tobacco and nicotine in Australia. An investigation published by French daily Le Monde revealed that severe excise taxation has backfired, fueling an underground economy run by outlaw biker gangs and international smuggling networks across Sydney and other major metropolitan areas.
Read moreGerman customs investigators in Essen, operating under the Central and Contact Point for the Prosecution of Organized Crime in North Rhine-Westphalia (ZeOS NRW), have dismantled an international smuggling ring. The syndicate systematically imported and distributed over 7.6 million illicit disposable nicotine vapes from China between January 2024 and March 2025, evading approximately €33.3 million in tobacco taxes.
Read moreConsumer advocacy groups and state agencies in the Philippines are pressing Congress to reform the national vape excise tax system to combat a surge in illicit trade. Advocates warn that a severe tax disparity between nicotine salt and freebase products encourages widespread misdeclaration, causing heavy revenue losses.
Read moreAustralia’s strict tobacco control policies have triggered severe unintended consequences, driving the majority of the nation’s nicotine supply into the hands of illicit syndicates. High cigarette taxes and a prescription-only model for vaping have created a black market that now accounts for up to 80% of the country’s nicotine supply, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates.
Read moreMexico’s constitutional ban on e-cigarettes has failed to reduce usage, shifting the entire market into the hands of illicit smugglers. Six months into the prohibition, approximately 2.5 million vaping devices remain in circulation across the country, according to industry data.
Read moreThe Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has declared that nicotine prohibition in Australia and Thailand is actively fueling massive illicit markets. Rather than eliminating demand, strict bans have handed market control to organized crime, leaving consumers with fewer protections and fewer legal alternatives to smoking.
In Australia, where strict vaping restrictions are in place, authorities have seized over 20 million illegal vapes since January 2024. Alan Gorley of ALIVE Advocacy Australia criticized the policy, stating it has “expanded the illicit market, enriched criminal networks, and left consumers with fewer protections than before.”
Similarly, Thailand’s 11-year-old vape ban has yielded identical results. Asa Saligupta from ENDs Cigarette Smoke Thailand noted that the ban did not stop vaping, but instead made products unregulated, impossible to quality-control, and highly profitable for illegal sellers.
CAPHRA Executive Coordinator Nancy Loucas warned that prohibition weakens consumer safety across the Asia-Pacific region. The coalition argues that public health is better served through strict age limits, product standards, and regulated legal access rather than ideological bans.
Datuk Dr. P. Sundramoorthy, a board member of the Asian Criminological Society, has warned that implementing a total vape ban in Malaysia could inadvertently strengthen organized smuggling syndicates and expand dangerous underground economies. This warning comes amid growing public concern over schoolchildren using highly hazardous, drug-laced vape products known locally as “mushroom,” “zombie,” and “kuah.”
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