A long‑running feud linked to Victoria’s illicit tobacco trade has exploded once more, this time with a brazen shooting outside a suburban shisha bar in Altona North late Tuesday night. Three shots were fired from a parked Toyota Hilux into a crowd seated outside the venue, sending patrons scrambling for cover.
A 49‑year‑old man was struck twice in the arm and taken to hospital with non‑life‑threatening injuries. Police later found the Hilux stolen from Newport in February and fitted with cloned plates torched just a few hundred metres away.
Security footage captured the chaos as men ducked and fled inside while bullets tore through the outdoor seating area. “It is quite confronting,” said Detective Inspector Graham Banks from the Gang Crime Squad. “It is clear from the CCTV that it is a very indiscriminate shooting.”
Investigators believe the attack is tied to the state’s booming illegal tobacco market, though they declined to detail the intelligence behind that assessment. Banks said it was likely more than one person was inside the vehicle at the time. The injured man is known to police, but detectives are unsure whether he was the intended target. “It may well be just a random shooting of that crowd of people to send a message,” Banks said.
Demand for black‑market tobacco has surged across Australia following steep tax hikes that have pushed the price of a legal pack of cigarettes towards $50, fuelling violent competition among criminal groups.
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