A multi-agency taskforce will be set up to target rising levels of crime associated with illegal tobacco.

The Illicit Tobacco National Disruption Group will be headed up by the Australian Border Force and will be made up of representatives from federal, state and territory police agencies as well as government departments.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said a unified approach was needed as organised criminals involved in black-market tobacco were also linked to a range of other crimes.

"The same criminal groups are involved in organised tobacco, you'll have some of them involved in forms of arson, you'll have some of them involved in the drug trade," he told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday .

"If there's a cohesion of threats and a convergence of threats, there needs to be a converg

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