{"id":16962,"date":"2026-03-17T04:52:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16962"},"modified":"2026-03-17T04:52:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:52:58","slug":"fears-nzs-tobacco-black-market-will-get-as-bad-as-australias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16962","title":{"rendered":"Fears NZ&#8217;s tobacco black market will get as bad as Australia&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand Customs has warned tobacco smuggling is becoming more organised, large-scale and sophisticated, with the government pledging to stop the country following Australia into tobacco gangland warfare.<\/p>\n<p>But a public health professor says while criminal involvement is a concern, there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in the size of the tobacco black market.<\/p>\n<p>Chief customs officer for fraud and prohibition Nigel Barnes said seizures have been trending upwards over the past decade, though there have been fluctuations due to large busts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"block-item\">\n<div class=\"c-play-controller u-blocklink\" data-uuid=\"45e00a68-ff1a-4bc0-b75b-68e2a4397a07\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"h-screen max-h-[calc(10rem*var(--base-multiplier))] min-h-[calc(6rem*var(--base-multiplier))]\">\n<section class=\"@container\/queue-media relative w-full h-full bg-surface-muted\" aria-label=\"Audio player - Tobacco smuggling becoming more organised and large scale\">\n<div class=\"flex h-full\">\n<div class=\"@[16.25em]\/queue-media:block bg-theme-primary relative hidden aspect-square h-full flex-none overflow-hidden\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"absolute h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--G_iieSFu--\/c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,h_100,q_auto,w_100\/v1671591260\/4LGF99X_checkpoint_internal_cover_png?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" aria-hidden=\"true\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"@container\/queue-media-content h-full w-full\">\n<div class=\"flex h-full w-full flex-grow flex-col justify-between overflow-hidden p-8\">\n<div class=\"text-foreground-primary flex flex-col gap-4 light-theme\">\n<h3 class=\"order-2 mb-4 line-clamp-2 text-sm\"><span class=\"block\">Tobacco smuggling becoming more organised and large scale<\/span><\/h3>\n<div class=\"order-1 flex items-baseline gap-8 text-xs leading-snug\"><span class=\"font-sans-semibold line-clamp-1\">Checkpoint<\/span><span class=\"whitespace-nowrap tabular-nums text-xs text-foreground-primary\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-16\">16 March 2026<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-between gap-4\">\n<div class=\"@[6.5em]\/queue-media-content:gap-8 flex flex-grow items-center gap-4\"><button class=\"group\/button font-sans-semibold flex-shrink-0 items-center justify-center gap-8 whitespace-nowrap rounded-full border leading-normal flex h-24 w-24 [&amp;&gt;svg]:h-[calc(1.8rem*var(--base-multiplier))] [&amp;&gt;svg]:w-[calc(1.8rem*var(--base-multiplier))] hover:bg-surface-hover hover:text-white dark-theme bg-surface-accent text-foreground-primary border-transparent\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Play Tobacco smuggling becoming more organised and large scale\"><\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"@container\/queue-add-button inline-flex w-full\"><button class=\"group\/button font-sans-semibold flex-shrink-0 items-center justify-center gap-8 whitespace-nowrap rounded-full border leading-normal flex gap-[calc(0.5rem*var(--base-multiplier))] px-8 pb-[calc(0.25rem*var(--base-multiplier))] pt-[calc(0.15rem*var(--base-multiplier))] text-sm hover:bg-surface-hover hover:text-white light-theme border-stroke-strong text-foreground-primary bg-transparent hover:border-surface-hover @[4.38em]\/queue-add-button:flex hidden\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Queue Tobacco smuggling becoming more organised and large scale\"><span class=\"inline-flex items-center gap-[calc(0.3rem*var(--base-multiplier))]\"><span class=\"font-sans-normal\">Queue<\/span><\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"sr-only\" aria-live=\"polite\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ml-auto flex h-full items-center gap-4\">\n<div class=\"relative -top-4 right-2 h-24 w-24\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In 2025, Customs seized 11.1 million illegal cigarettes and cigars, and 5.4 tonnes of loose tobacco, compared to 9.2 million illegal cigarettes and cigars, and 2.7 tonnes of loose tobacco in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, 4.8 million cigarettes were seized, and 3.6 tonnes of loose tobacco.<\/p>\n<p>Barnes said illicit cigarette seizures in 2025 represented about $16 million in tax revenue evasion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s just the stuff we&#8217;ve seized.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--DubsAP0G--\/c_fill,g_center,h_1181,w_1890\/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1773640638\/4JRNZGJ_927000cigarettes_png?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"In August 2025, Customs officers at the Auckland Processing Centre intercepted two separate consignments from China: the first containing 340,000 uncustomed cigarettes of the Chinese brand \u2018Double Happiness\u2019, and the second containing 587,000 cigarettes of the same brand. The consignments were declared as clothes.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"656\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">In August 2025, Customs officers intercepted two separate consignments from China: the first containing 340,000 uncustomed cigarettes of the Chinese brand \u2018Double Happiness\u2019, and the second containing 587,000 cigarettes of the same brand.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0NZ Customs Service<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>He said illegal cigarettes were selling here for between $20 and $25 in diaries, liquor stores and pop-up outlets throughout the country. A legal packet costs between $40 and $50.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, there&#8217;s a significant-size market in Auckland, but we&#8217;ve identified illicit tobacco distribution networks in regional centres as well, as far afield as the South Island and Gisborne.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Barnes said the increase in seizures partly reflected a $10.4m funding boost in 2022 and the establishment of a dedicated illegal tobacco investigations team.<\/p>\n<p>But the involvement of transnational and serious organised crime groups concerned him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tobacco smuggling into New Zealand is becoming more organised, large-scale and sophisticated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Criminals were increasingly adding tobacco to their drug and money laundering operations, he said, and smugglers were masking themselves under shell companies.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--c5ZE41NI--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1761175241\/4JZ35TL_Illicit_tobacco_jpg?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"Investigators found an estimated 1,200 kilograms of loose tobacco in a storage unit during search warrants in Auckland on October 22.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1400\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">An estimated 1200 kilograms of loose tobacco in a storage unit obtained during search warrants in Auckland in 2025.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0Supplied<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Officials had seized drugs, firearms and other weapons, as well as large amounts of cash in investigations.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, Customs arrested three Malaysian nationals who travelled to New Zealand to smuggle tobacco into the country. When officials did some digging, they found out the trio had the same operation in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Agents also discovered a large illegal cigarette manufacturing operation in 2024 in Christchurch, where a man had imported loose tobacco under the guise of tea, setting up machinery to make individual cigarettes, boxes of cigarettes and cigarette branded labels.<\/p>\n<p>Barnes said the trajectory of Australia&#8217;s black market for tobacco was &#8220;particularly concerning&#8221; for New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re in contact regularly with our Australian counterparts, and the trajectory of the illicit tobacco market in Australia is particularly concerning, mostly because New Zealand and Australia have the highest excise rates in the Asia-Pacific region. So if it could happen there, it could happen here, is a kind of a theory.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The standovers and firebombs that are getting reported on in Australia are particularly concerning for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Barnes said Customs was doing everything it could to prevent New Zealand following Australia&#8217;s path.<\/p>\n<p>rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand Customs has warned tobacco smuggling is becoming more organised, large-scale and sophisticated, with the government pledging to stop the country following Australia into tobacco gangland warfare. But a public health professor says while criminal involvement is a concern, there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in the size of the tobacco black [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16964,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16962\/revisions\/16964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}