ABF seizes machine able to make up to 3.6m cigarettes a day in Sydney

The Australian Border Force seized a large tobacco manufacturing machine capable of producing up to 3.6m cigarettes a day during a raid at a self-storage facility in Rouse Hill, Sydney, on Thursday.

Officers executed two warrants and also seized more than 7.5kg of loose-leaf tobacco, nearly 6,000 vaping devices and eight boxes of suspected counterfeit tobacco packaging.

Samuel Harnden, the acting superintendent of the ABF’s illicit tobacco taskforce, said the agency was targeting such products at "every level – importation, production, distribution, and supply" and warned of links between local illicit tobacco manufacturing and organised criminal syndicates.

Harnden added: "Every illicit tobacco purchase provides funding to these criminal syndicates, giving them the funds that drive further violence and serious criminal activity." The agency described the operation as a targeted raid that uncovered an illegal cigarette manufacturing operation.

The report did not say whether anyone had been arrested or whether charges would be laid.

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