Crime boss Kazem Hamad has taken a major financial stake in the Manchester tobacco company in Dubai, cementing his cartel’s control over Australia’s illicit cigarette market from manufacturing and smuggling through to retail sales in suburban shops, according to new reporting by The Age.
Although illegal to import or sell in Australia, Manchester United Kingdom has become the country’s most popular cigarette brand as organized crime groups associated with Hamad flood the market with cheap, untaxed product, fueling Melbourne’s “tobacco war,” according to the report.
Hamad, who was deported to Iraq in mid-2023, is described as emerging as a dominant underworld figure after a two-year campaign of fire-bombings and shootings that helped him exert control over the illicit tobacco trade, The Age said.
Sources in law enforcement, intelligence and the tobacco industry told the news outlet that Hamad’s stake in Manchester has helped to create a “fully vertically integrated criminal enterprise,” allowing the syndicate to profit at every stage of the pipeline.
Hamad’s greater involvement in Manchester follows the surrender of former rival distributors, the Haddara crime family, in early 2024, according to the report. Hamad is believed to have taken over Haddara’s networks, shops, and profit share in the brand.
Manchester’s business model involves producing billions of cigarettes in Dubai that are legally sold to exporters, then diverted into illicit channels and smuggled into Australia for wholesale distribution and retail sale. The organization operates out of Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone but is technically headquartered in London, according to The Age.
Now considered a major transit hub for black-market cigarettes sold around the world, the Jebel Ali Free Zone is home to more than 20 tobacco factories, according to report.
The news agency described Manchester’s London presence as largely cosmetic, with incorporation records showing limited UK operations, while manufacturing occurs in Dubai under license arrangements tied to a corporate owner in the UAE, where disclosure requirements are minimal.
Read more at The Age