Police have found and destroyed a 16-tonne crop of illegal tobacco in central west New South Wales.
Police received a tip-off that the illegal crop was being grown at Murga, east of Parkes, last year.
Police, along with officers from the Australian Taxation Office, raided the rural property last week where the crop was seized and destroyed.
NSW Police officer Detective Superintendent Stuart Cadden said the crop would be worth $20 million on the black market.
He said no arrests were made but investigations were ongoing.
"There were signs of it [the farm] being lived in and used ... we don't know why they weren't there at the time," he said.
"There was definitely an element of organised crime involved in the operation, it was sophisticated it was very well done in the scope of the agricultural side."
Tax office representative Justin Clarke said it was a sophisticated operation and the plants would have generated $28 million in excise if they were sold legally.
"The plants were large and mature which indicates to us that they had a lot of care and attention," he said.
Mr Clarke said black market tobacco was a major problem in Australia with the tax losses estimated to be $1.8 billion a year.
The Illicit Tobacco Taskforce has destroyed almost 400 tonnes of tobacco, seized more than 7 million individual cigarettes and made 13 convictions since it was established in 2018.
The tax office estimates the estimated excise revenue of those seizures would be worth $569 million.
Mr Clarke said illegal tobacco sale was a serious crime because the proceeds funded other criminal activities.
"Illicit tobacco is a cash crop for organised criminal syndicates and quite often that money is put back into other illegal activities, so we think that it is a serious threat," he said.
