Austrailia and England have similar prob;lems

In the last 18 months, as many as 200 shops have been destroyed as criminals try to wrest control of the lucrative illegal tobacco market. 

What's worrying though is not only the level of violence, but why this thuggery started in the first place. 

As Nick McKenzie reports in this joint 60 Minutes, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald investigation, by taxing cigarettes so exorbitantly in an attempt to stop people smoking, the federal government has inadvertently created a thriving black market worth $5 billion a year. 

The changes to the tobacco excise are designed to encourage smokers to quit.

We're taking decisive action to end the trade of illicit tobacco with $188.5 million to the Australian Border Force (ABF).

The ABF is working closely with the states and territories who are increasing compliance and cracking down on the organised crime networks that profit from the illicit tobacco black market.

Record levels of illicit tobacco are being targeted and seized at our borders and prosecutions are taking place.

After a decade of delay and inaction from the Liberals, the gains of Labor's world-leading plain packaging reforms had been squandered and the poorest and most marginalised Australians have paid the price."

https://reason.com/2024/06/17/the-deadly-tobacco-drug-war-down-under/