- Exclusive - National - Victoria - Organised crime ‘Pay or burn’: Inside the gangland war over the tobacco trade netting millions Pay or burn. It’s become an open secret among Victoria’s tobacco shops that you have to pay the “tax”. There is no mistaking the threat, not when at least a dozen tobacco shops have already been turned to cinders. “If you want to open a smoke shop in Melbourne, you have to pay them. You can’t open in their area. They’ve made a kind of cartel,” said an underworld source, who spoke to The Age on condition of anonymity. “People are told – these are the rules. You pay $1000 a week in cash. You sell our cigarettes. You don’t follow the rules, your shop will be burnt t... [Read more]