source : the age
Dodgy barber shops, gift shops and clothing stores are the latest to be targeted by authorities in WA’s tobacco wars.
The Australian Border Force revealed it searched 45 retail outlets in a week-long blitz last month including tobacconists, convenience grocers, gift stores and barbers in Perth and Margaret River.
Search warrants were also executed at four storage locations, two postal depots and one residential property.
More than 1.46 million illicit cigarettes were seized, along with 197 kilograms of loose-leaf tobacco, 7900 vaping devices and 990 cigars and 3360 nicotine pouches.
The substances had a street value of more than $814,000 and resulted in the temporary forced closure of 15 shops.
Here’s what’s making news across the nation and around the world today:
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog for this Tuesday, September 8, 2026.
Making headlines today, Fast Eddys was once an institution for a late night bite to eat in Perth’s CBD before it closed its doors in 2019. But that history could soon be wiped away, with a planning panel poised to wave through a $10 million tourist development in the long-dormant building’s place.
The eatery’s former home on Murray Street has laid dormant for the past seven years, but any remainder of its existence is likely to be demolished if state planners approve a new tourist accommodation project next week.
Meanwhile, fracking wastewater ponds could overflow under higher-than-average rainfall conditions that are common in the Kimberley, environmental groups warn, as new documents raise fresh fears of a contamination threat to a nearby major waterway.
