Fire bombings and ram raids on stores selling illegal cigarettes are surging across Australia as authorities play “a game of Whac-A-Mole” in the lucrative market.

Queensland is the latest state with a rise in violent attacks on tobacconists as illegal sales ramp up across Australia, state Health Minister Tim Nicholls has revealed.

The violence in Queensland is not at the level of Victoria or NSW, where there has been a spate of targeted torchings in the ongoing war between criminal gangs over the profits of illegal tobacco.

There have been more than 100 firebombings in Victoria over two years while seven men have been arrested across Sydney for the theft of illegal cigarettes and chop-chop, or loose tobacco, in the past year.

In regional South Australia earlier this month, police seized more than $1.5 million of illegal tobacco and $444,000 in cash in raids on 31 premises.

Locations searched included tobacconists, barber shops, gift shops, mini-marts, commercial storage facilities and residential premises.

It followed earlier searches between August 2024 and March 2025 of business addresses, commercial storage facilities, a transit facility and homes that led to seizures of more than $2.5 million in illicit tobacco products and $391,000 cash.

Reports are also increasing in Queensland But there are increasing reports in the Sunshine State of fire bombings, torchings and ram raids at tobacconists.

“That’s obviously a sign of the increasing criminal activity and criminal element that’s getting into this very lucrative illicit tobacco trade,” Nicholls told ABC Radio.

Harsh laws came into effect in Queensland earlier in April, increasing fines for individuals caught illegally supplying cigarettes to $32,260 a person, up from $3226, and corporations can be fined $161,300, up from $16,130.

It follows new fines introduced in September last year that enabled authorities to close offending businesses for up to six months – a penalty no other state had introduced.

Nicholls said there were 5000 retailers in Queensland with hundreds more thought to sell illegal tobacco.

Since April 3, there have been 36 raids across the state with 820,000 cigarettes, 180 kilograms of tobacco and 24,000 nicotine pouches seized.

“As soon as these pop-up shops open up and are closed by our hard-working teams they open up yet again in another location,” Nicholls said.

“It’s a bit of a Whac-A-Mole game at the moment, but we’ve got to attack it.”

Nicholls hoped the 10-fold increase in the fines would “break the back” of the illegal tobacco trade but said it had to be a combined effort with federal authorities to stop it entering the country.

He added that the major gap in price between illegal tobacco and legal cigarettes due to excise was likely fuelling the illicit market.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has out any change to the tax.

“I think that obviously plays a part in it, and that people who enjoy a cigarette, and we obviously want to get them off it, but we’ll see the opportunity to do something cheaper in a cost-of-living crisis,” Nicholls said.

-with AAP