Tobacco smuggling is big business in Australia. Mostly because a regular pack of cigarettes costs $40 these days, compared to $15 for a pack of bootlegged Indonesian Marlboros.
For the 2020 financial year, Australia imported 11,064 tonnes of legally cleared (taxed) tobacco. The government estimates there was 770 tonnes of untaxed tobacco successfully grown/imported, or 6.2% of all tobacco smoked in Australia. [1]
Recently a guy was handed almost 2 years of house arrest for importing 10 million cigarettes [2], which is roughly 10 tonnes, give or take. There's plenty more cases where entire containers full of cigarettes have been seized.
Which are a substantial part of the cost for both alcohol and tobacco.
When I was an undergrad in Virginia (home of Phillip Morris), a pack of cigarettes was selling for about $3.50 in today’s dollars - and that's for a brand like Marlboro or Camel. IIRC retail in NYC is about $20 these days. That’s a huge incentive.
