An ‘international grocer’ in southwestern Sydney has been shut down after authorities learned it had set up a drive-thru window for the sale of illicit tobacco and vape products.
Joey’s Mini Mart & Drive Thru in Campbelltown billed itself as a shop selling ‘international groceries’ and ‘snacks and spices,’ but according to NSW Health, it had other products for sale.
The Queen St business, which was once a battery store before it briefly became Queen Street Shisha in late 2024, was shut down by NSW Health authorities on Tuesday along with a slew of other businesses caught selling illegal tobacco products.
According to NSW Health, Joey’s was “uncovered operating a ‘drive-through’ style tobacconist, selling illicit tobacco and illegal vapes through a laneway service window”.
“NSW Health has referred the matter to local council compliance officers to assess potential breaches of planning legislation,” a spokesman said.
“Closure orders may be issued to a retail premises for selling illicit tobacco or illicit vaping goods and/or the retail sale of tobacco or non-tobacco smoking products with a license.”
Across a two-day period on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, NSW Health inspectors shut down 10 separate retailers, seizing 420,000 illicit cigarettes, 60kg of loose-leaf tobacco and more than 4,000 illicit vapes with a combined street value of around $600,000.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said while the shutdowns were “great news,” the federal tobacco excise had created an environment where authorities were being forced to play “whack-a-mole” as illegal businesses continue shutting down and re-establishing under different names.
“It’s clear the federal tobacco excise is at such a rate that people are turning to illegal tobacco with illegal tobacconists flourishing in our suburbs and communities,” Mr Park said.
“So long as the excise continues to remain high, the black market will continue and we will have to keep playing whack-a-mole with bad actors.”
Health experts and the NSW government have remained at odds over the best solution to the tobacco crisis, with experts consistently holding strong on the excise, which has considerably raised the price of legal cigarettes in recent years.
Speaking to NewsWire earlier this year, Public Health Professor Becky Freeman said it was “tempting” to think lowering the tax would get rid of the illegal trade because “it’s really simplistic” and earns “political attraction”.
“I just don’t understand the public health rationale of competing with these criminal networks. you would essentially just drive down the cost of cigarettes all across the board. There’s absolutely room for illicit tobacco products to go cheaper, they haven’t exactly hit rock-bottom,” she said.
“Driving down smoking rates by making cigarettes cheaper is just not going to happen.”