Illegal tobacco increasingly hard to spot, with some fakes in plain packaging featuring Australian health warnings

Government warned that counterfeit tobacco produced by criminal organisations in south-east Asia is becoming more sophisticated

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The black-market tobacco trade continues to thrive as sellers turn to counterfeit packaging to skirt bans, prompting calls for the urgent passing of tougher laws.

Intelligence provided to the federal government shows cigarettes in plain Australian-style packaging are being produced illegally at an industrial scale in south-east Asian warehouses.