South Australia's Police Commissioner says the state government should consider making it an offence to buy cheap tobacco. There's been 19 arson attacks across Adelaide since July, which police have linked to organised crime syndicates in the black-market trade of illegal tobacco.
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00:00Cracking down on illegal smokes.
00:05The government showing its latest haul of illicit tobacco and vapes from a raid in the
00:10Mid North.
00:11We are determined to ensure that South Australia is the most hostile environment for organised
00:16crime groups who are seeking to sell illegal tobacco or move it throughout our state.
00:22We've seized about a million dollars worth of cash, 3.8 million dollars worth of illicit
00:27tobacco products.
00:28I think we're hitting this pretty hard.
00:31Police have linked 19 recent arson attacks across Adelaide to organised crime syndicates.
00:37Now the Police Commissioner says his team has submitted a raft of recommendations to
00:42the government on additional law reform measures that could be considered, including making
00:47it an offence to purchase cheap tobacco.
00:50When we see organised crime getting involved, which we did forecast based on what we've
00:54seen in Victoria, then we have skin in the game.
00:57The government says that's not on the cards.
01:00Tobacco addiction has always been in our community dealt with as a health issue and we'll be
01:04continuing to deal with it on that basis.
01:06But they're not ruling out further reform.
01:09We'll need to sit down with police, go through their suggestions and then obviously take
01:13that through the parliamentary process.
01:15And Minister Picton says legislation could potentially change quickly.
01:20We've still got a number of sitting weeks this year.
01:22If there are suggestions that police have that can be readily made, then we're very
01:26open to working with them on it.
01:28The government says it's seized $5 million worth of illegal product since the beginning
01:33of July and are calling on the public to make anonymous reports if they suspect a premise
01:39is trading illicit cigarettes.
01:41That intelligence really helps us target our resources.
01:45The war on black market tobacco continuing.