More than 100 service stations across Australia were raided on Tuesday in a coordinated blitz that put nearly 300 personnel from the Australian Border Force and 14 other agencies into the streets, shops and forecourts of ordinary people. The operation, called Operation Shorthand, targeted suspected criminal activity and the alleged sale of illicit tobacco and vapes, with raids carried out in every state and territory except Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Who Has the Power
The Australian Border Force said the campaign deployed nearly 300 personnel, while 15 federal and state agencies took part under the Illicit Tobacco National Disruption Group, which the federal government established in 2025. That apparatus included NSW Police, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. The machinery of enforcement moved together, coordinated from above, while service stations became the places where that power landed.
Footage of one raid showed officers entering a service station and seizing packets of imported tobacco boxes and cash. That’s the public face of the crackdown: uniforms, entry, seizure, and the quiet removal of goods and money from a business under suspicion. The ABF said the operation remained active as NDG agencies assessed evidence gathered during the raids, and some of the targeted service stations may be closed temporarily.
Who Pays for the Crackdown
ABF Assistant Commissioner Customs Compliance and Enforcement Tony Smith said all agencies shared a goal of disrupting an evolving illegal tobacco trade. He said, "Criminal actors are continuing to adapt their business models and diversify their activities by moving away from traditional tobacconists and in to selling their products out of convenience stores, milk bars and even service stations," and added, "This diversification demonstrates an enforcement pressure from border agencies and our partners across the country and internationally is forcing criminal enablers to adapt their tactics to evade detection and enforcement."
The language is all pressure, adaptation and enforcement. The people at the bottom of that chain are the ones whose shops get raided, whose cash gets seized, and whose businesses may be shut down while the agencies sort through evidence. The state calls it disruption. The costs land somewhere else.
AFP Superintendent Crime Command Jim Rowe said intelligence suggested the illegal tobacco trade was connected to organised crime. He said, "We have seen organised crime groups use the sales of illicit tobacco to fund further criminal activity," and added, "The aim of today's enforcement activity for the AFP is to obtain information to help us identify the potential importation of illicit tobacco, distribution networks and how the proceeds of sales are collected and then distributed."
That’s the logic of the raid: gather information, map networks, trace money, tighten the net. The agencies don’t just want products off shelves. They want the routes, the collectors and the distribution lines.
What They're Calling Protection
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said NSW Health was part of the multi-agency effort. He said, "We work closely with our federal enforcement agencies to share intelligence around people who are doing the wrong thing," and added, "It's not fair on legitimate small business owners, it's not fair on the community or young children that these stores are popping up and are selling illegal products across the board."
The language of fairness does a lot of work here. It wraps a police-and-border operation in the language of public protection, while the actual method remains the same: intelligence-sharing, raids and seizure. The federal government established the Illicit Tobacco National Disruption Group in 2025, and now that structure is being used to push enforcement deeper into everyday commerce.
The Motor Trades Association of Australia welcomed the heightened enforcement and supported "the work of the Australian Border Force and law enforcement agencies in upholding the law." The ABC said it had reached out to the Australian Service Station and Convenience Store Association for comment.
The raids were still active as the agencies kept assessing evidence. For the people whose stations were targeted, that means uncertainty, interruption and the full weight of coordinated state power arriving at the counter.