Perth tobacco store owner’s extraordinary claims of extortion and fear in illicit trade syndicate

He was lured by the promise of massive profits and the chance to give his family the life he’d dreamed of, instead the reality for one Perth tobacconist has amounted to nothing more than fear, extortion, and a life looking over his shoulder. We cannot name him, nor identify his shop. He genuinely fears that if the powerful figures at the top of this empire learn he is speaking out, he won’t live to see another day. “I don’t want anyone to go through what I am,“ the man said. “I am trapped. There is no going to the police or the government because if they (bosses) find out — I won’t be here to see my family.” He met his suppliers through Perth’s close-knit Middle Eastern community, where he was offered the opportunity to cash in on a black market that the government has been reluctant to tackle head-on. The set-up was designed to make him feel in control - but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. “They (bosses) told me ‘you set-up a company and register the name’ but I had to have it (registered) at an address for them in a partnership and use their accountant,” the man said. “Then they told me it’s no worries after that, you get a delivery (of cigarettes) as many as you need and you just pay for each packet and then sell for what you want and keep the money. “It was more than half of my business, well in the beginning.” At the start, he says there was no fear of getting caught by the health authorities, because the sheer amount of money he was making could easily have paid for any fines. As time went on, the store owner says he soon realised he wasn’t really the owner at all but was sucked into a syndicate spanning nine shopfronts across the city. “I got a phone call from them (bosses) and they told me how much I was going to sell the cigarettes for and what they would be taking, and if I don’t agree they will burn my shop and then come for me,” he said. “There is protection for the store from others (syndicates) but you would see the fires and shootings and everything that is still happening. “I wish I never got involved to tell you the truth.” Upon first glance at the syndicate’s financial and business records — the shopfronts appear unremarkable — but a deeper investigation exposes a tangled interconnected web of tobacconists and retail entities. The network operates as part of what’s called a ‘hub and spoke’ administrative model. Like a bicycle wheel — the syndicate bosses sit safely at the ‘hub’ in the centre, while the shops are the ‘spokes’ on the outside. All the businesses might look different on the surface—different names, different owners—but they all lead back to the same accountants and the same postal addresses. If health authorities or police snap one ‘spoke’ with a raid, the wheel keeps turning and the hub remains untouched. The person behind the counter takes the fall, while the real owner—the ‘ultimate beneficiary’—is insulated by layers of paperwork and shell companies. The West Australian has uncovered at least two other separate groups of shops operating the exact same way. One of these syndicates appears to be run out of Sydney’s western suburbs. A WA Police spokesman declined to comment on specific cases of threats and extortion in the illicit tobacco trade but urged anyone with information to make a report via Crime Stoppers. Police Commissioner Col Blanch has previously been vocal about the tactics employed by organised crime gangs to gain and maintain control of this black market. “I think the country is experiencing a new way of organised crime operating by doing this tactic through illicit tobacco sales,” Mr Blanch said. “It’s quite a lucrative business where these shops can earn thousands and thousands of dollars.” The dark undercurrent of the tobacco trade was again thrust into the public arena in recent months with a string of violent and damaging attacks on businesses across Perth. Several bullets from a high-powered firearm were shot into the front of a convenience store in Ballajura, on December 4 — in the third targeted attack on the same premises in 12 months. Two tobacconists in Midland were also badly damaged by fire in weeks prior, in what police believe are linked to the escalating war. The eruption of violence in late 2025 followed the arrest of the Perth-based brother to Victoria’s “tobacco king” Kazem Hamad. Maytham Hamad is accused of running a large-scale illicit cash and tobacco racket — overseeing a retail network of stores in Armadale, Byford, High Wycombe and Medina. Police alleged the 31-year-old sold the illicit tobacco through the stores before sending the cash profits interstate. Between August and September last year, officers allegedly intercepted nine packages containing $1.7 million in cash linked to Maytham Hamad. In November, he was arrested at his home in Mt Pleasant where police seized more than $1 million in assets including Lamborghini sports cars and designer clothes.