Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1543154
22 tobaccoasia Issue 1, 2026 January / February By Timothy S. Donahue The fire came first. Before a recent dawn in Melbourne, two more storefronts burst into flames. It's the latest in a long series of firebombings connected to Australia's expanding illegal tobacco and vaping trade. Police sirens cut through the smoke as investigators follow a familiar routine: charred walls, melted security shutters, and frightened owners who whisper that they received threats the night before. For months, arson—once uncommon in the country's tobacco industry—has become alarmingly normal. Authorities said they have now linked at least 200 firebomb attacks and sev‑ eral deaths to what the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) openly calls the "tobacco wars," a turf fight fueled by organized crime groups profiting from the sales of illegal nicotine products. These scenes resemble a crime thriller more than a case study in public policy. It was a fascinating topic at a recent tobacco industry conference in Brussels, where an international panel led by moderator Rohan Pike, director of Rohan Pike Consulting and a former officer at the Australian Border Force, warned that the illicit trade of nicotine products is growing on every continent. It is no longer a local issue. It undermines tobacco harm reduction, drains billions in public revenue, distorts markets, fuels violence, and empowers criminal groups that exploit every regulatory mistake. Pike, drawing on his experience as a former customs official, warned that no single seminar could ever cover all the issues surrounding the illegal trade of nicotine products. However, the subsequent discussion revealed a crisis that is both widespread and well‑organized, driven as much by government policy failures as by criminal opportunism. Illicit Trade: The Criminal Economy Undermines Tobacco Harm Reduction The illicit tobacco trade has become a global crisis, draining billions from government revenues while funneling billions more to organized crime. Credit: Pxhere.