Organized 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 moreTag Archive for: Black Market
German 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.”
Read moreMalaysian authorities are struggling to contain a rapidly growing underground digital vape market following the implementation of the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act (Act 852). This legislative crackdown has inadvertently transformed the online trade into exclusive, invite-only networks operating entirely out of regulators’ reach.
Read moreRothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. (RBH) has warned that Health Canada’s latest legislative review of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA) overlooks a massive, growing illicit nicotine market. Released last week, the review exposes critical regulatory gaps and outdated enforcement mechanisms that threaten public health.
Read moreAustralia’s aggressive cigarette tax hikes and restrictive vaping bans have backfired, fueling a massive, violent black market and undermining the nation’s long-standing harm-minimization framework. This policy shift has driven low-income smokers to illicit markets, resulting in billions in lost revenue and a surge in organized crime.
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