A Middle Eastern crime boss and central figure in Melbourne’s tobacco wars has teamed up with a Chinese gang to flood Australia with millions of illegal vapes.
Iraqi gangster Kazem “Kaz” Hamad, 41, who has continued to dominate Australia’s tobacco black market despite being deported in 2023, is now working with a China-based syndicate run by a shadowy figure called “Chinese Simon”, underworld and police sources told The Age.
The Chinese gang has previously been designated an Australian Priority Organisation Target by law enforcement for its involvement in drug and tobacco smuggling, and is now pushing the Alibarbar brand of vapes, which sell for between $35 and $50 per unit.
The Australian Border Force seized 115,200 Alibarbar vapes worth $4.5 million found in a container shipped from Shenzhen, China, in July, and the sources said Hamad was trying to dominate the market with the new brand, and using extortion and threats to force shops to sell the product.
“It was all about the cigarettes at the start. But the gangs realised they were losing money by not running the vapes too,” a source with links to the syndicate said.
“They chose Alibarbar. They’ve got control of the stores, who don’t get a choice about whether to refuse.”
Police sources said there were yet to be any firebombings linked to the illegal vape market, unlike during the years-long tobacco war centred in Melbourne that saw hundreds of stores set alight.
The tobacco industry estimates that Alibarbar is now stocked in 90% of Australian stores, and a Victoria Police source said 500 were under the syndicate’s direct control with hundreds more paying a $5,000/month “Kaz tax” to operate and sell illegal tobacco.
Alibarbar smoking products are illegal in Australia, but last year IP Australia granted a trademark for the name and logo to Chinese company Shenzhen Dali Wanwei Technology Co Ltd, which was founded in late 2023.
Hamad was deported after spending eight years in a maximum security Victorian prison, and is now believed to be running his illegal tobacco and vape empire from Baghdad, but previous attempts to seek his extradition have been blocked by the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions due to fears Iraqi authorities may execute him instead of handing him over to Australian police.
The Australian Tax Office admitted on Friday the tobacco black market (which does not include vapes) was now so large it was unable to be accurately measured, saying new waste water analysis suggested the “total illicit market is significantly higher than what we have previously estimated”.
“We now assess this tobacco tax gap estimate as unreliable and are undertaking a review of the methodology,” the ATO said.
The tobacco gap estimate for 2023-24 was $3.2 billion – the amount of customs and excise duty evaded through illicit importation and production.
The ATO also estimated that 25% of all tobacco for sale was illegal, but ABC’s 7.30 reported last month that internal tobacco industry data estimated that 64% of all tobacco consumed, and 82% of all nicotine consumed, was illegal.
Header image: Left, Kazem Hamad. Right, Alibarbar vapes (ABF).
