Nine passengers on three separate flights from Tokyo have had their tourist visas cancelled by Australian Border Force (ABF) in recent days for attempting to bring into Australia a combined total of more than 330,000 undeclared cigarettes.
On Friday 5 July 2024, six male Japanese nationals were stopped by ABF officers for a baggage search at Sydney International Airport after arriving on two separate flights from Tokyo.
All six passengers were found to have large quantities of undeclared cigarettes in their luggage that came to a combined total of 225,700 sticks. The seizure represents $305,175 in evaded duty. One passenger alone was found to have 43,500 undeclared cigarettes in his baggage.
On Saturday 6 July 2024, a further three male Japanese nationals were stopped at Sydney International Airport, again after arriving on a flight from Tokyo.
On this occasion, ABF officers found a total of 104,545 undeclared cigarettes in their baggage. This seizure represents $133,625 in evaded duty.
All nine passengers had their undeclared cigarettes seized and were refused immigration clearance. They were then detained under s189 (1) of the Migration Act 1958, and removed from the country at the earliest opportunity.
ABF Inspector Clint Unwin said the rules around bringing in cigarettes into Australia from a duty-free perspective were long standing and well-advertised, but these cases appeared to be more than a simple oversight by the passengers.
"When your baggage contains so many packets of cigarettes there's barely enough room for anything else it does become a red flag for us," Inspector Unwin said.
"This should serve as a warning for anyone considering a similar attempt at bringing into Australia a prohibited import such as cigarettes, while also attempting to evade paying the duty on these products.
"Not only have they lost their haul of cigarettes and wasted an airfare, but by having their visas cancelled they now face an exclusion period of up to three years from re-entering Australia."
Passengers seeking more information on what can be brought into Australia can check the ABF website here: www.abf.gov.au