Hossein and Mousa Al Mansouri: Brothers charged over huge illicit cigarettes, vapes, tobacco bust face court

Perth brothers charged over a massive haul of illicit tobacco products linked to a sophisticated national crime syndicate have frantically fled media outside court. Nedlands man Hossein Al Mansouri, 32, and his 33-year-old brother Mousa Al Mansouri were charged after raids on August 20 at a Wangara warehouse, five storage units across Perth and two vehicles they allegedly used. Some items were also allegedly found at the older brother’s Dianella home. Federal and State police, helped by Australian Border Force, seized more than four million cigarettes weighing more than five tonnes, almost 50,500 vapes and nearly 900kg of loose-leaf tobacco. It is alleged the syndicate was selling the products in WA and sending the profits to the Eastern States. The men faced Perth Magistrates Court for the first time on Friday, charged with possessing tobacco being an excisable good where excise duty is payable on the tobacco and the weight is 500kg or more. The maximum penalty for the offence is five years’ imprisonment and/or a $330,000 fine. The pair are also facing a charge each of possessing more than 1000 times the commercial quantity or more of vapes, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment and/or a $1.65 million fine. Outside court, the brothers covered their heads with their jackets and scuttled past waiting reporters. They were bailed on a $20,000 personal undertaking and are due back in court on November 21. Distributing the seized products illegally would have avoided about $8 million in Commonwealth excise and taxes, police allege.