A former championship boxer who spent nearly two decades trying to clear his name for a murder he claims he didn’t commit has been identified as the alleged head of a major illicit tobacco network worth millions of dollars.
Khalid Baker, who won the Victorian Regional Cruiserweight title in 2019 in less than a year after serving a 13-year prison sentence, has allegedly been hiding overseas from a warrant for his arrest as part of a major state and federal law enforcement operation.
Baker became a cause celebre in the legal community and media – including RMIT’s Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative, 60 Minutes and SBS Insight’s Trial by Media – for what he has long alleged was a “gross miscarriage of justice” from a wrongful conviction for a death at a Brunswick party in 2005.
The now 39-year-old, who has unsuccessfully fought to clear his name through two appeals to the High Court and two petitions of mercy, allegedly became a top-ranked member of an illicit tobacco syndicate at the same time he was attempting to prove his innocence in the murder case.
Court documents obtained by The Age have named Baker and his associate Nazir Haddara as masterminds controlling a network of illicit tobacco shops across Victoria that generated more than $10 million in the proceeds of crime.
The allegations have been documented in summaries of offending and a criminal sentence for two low-level players in the syndicate who pleaded guilty this year.
According to prosecutors, Baker and Haddara were allegedly responsible for operating at least 19 tobacco shops and a number of stash drops in regional towns in the state’s north and west from Warrnambool to Ararat to Echuca to Geelong, as well as metropolitan locations in Bentleigh, Werribee, Kensington and Boronia.
The alleged syndicate was shut down following a series of raids beginning in mid-2024 by Victoria Police and the Australian Border Force, known as Operation Galactus.
“The illicit tobacco and vape shops identified through Operation Galactus operated under the enterprise of an organised criminal group (the Organisation) controlled by Nazir Haddara and Khalid Baker,” prosecution documents tendered to the County Court said.
Haddara and nine other alleged syndicate members were also charged in late 2024 under the operation.
Haddara, who has pleaded not guilty, has been committed to stand trial in the County Court.
Victoria Police have confirmed that Baker is being sought under an active arrest warrant.
It remains unclear when Baker left Australia, but two underworld sources say he is currently living in South-East Asia.
A source familiar with the case, but not able to be publicly identified, said Baker had arranged for a lawyer to monitor the 18-day preliminary hearing for Haddara and his co-offenders in July 2026 and report back on developments.
They said Baker has been attempting to negotiate a return to Australia with law enforcement authorities, but he is allegedly refusing to turn himself in unless he is given time with his family before being taken into custody.
Baker could not be reached for comment by The Age.
Court documents show the syndicate was targeted for investigation over its alleged activities selling tobacco beginning in mid-2022, which include running a statewide distribution network and laundering more than $10 million.
At the time, Baker was in the midst of staging his second appeal against conviction in Victoria’s Court of Appeal and then soon after filing an appeal to the High Court for the second time.
The circumstances of his murder conviction have long attracted claims of a miscarriage of justice based on allegations of faulty or biased witnesses, disregarded evidence and tunnel vision by police, prosecutors and judges.
In 2005, on the cusp of making his debut boxing appearance at the Commonwealth Games, Baker was charged with murder after a fight at a party in Brunswick led to the death of 22-year-old Albert Snowball. Baker was 18.
Baker was convicted of murder in 2008 for pushing or throwing Snowball through a window, who fell more than five metres and died two days later of his injuries.
The controversy over the conviction stemmed from what has been alleged as racial bias from witnesses who identified Baker as the person responsible for pushing Snowball, rather than a 17-year-old associate known as “LM” who was acquitted.
LM, who cannot be identified because he was underage at the time, had admitted to police he pushed Snowball, but his confession was ruled inadmissible.
LM also repeatedly took responsibility for the death following Baker’s conviction, including signing statements and testifying under compulsion during the 2022 appeal, but his evidence was dismissed by multiple courts.
Baker, who was released on parole in 2018, received significant backing from RMIT’s Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative in attempting to clear his name.
However, in March 2023, the High Court of Australia dismissed Baker’s application for leave to appeal – effectively putting an end to his attempts for exoneration.
Publicly, Baker proclaimed his goal in his life after prison was a return to competitive boxing.
In August 2019, less than a year after his release, Baker won the Victorian Regional Cruiserweight title.
Along the way, Baker picked up sponsorships and promotional gigs from the CFMEU, Rex Airlines and Oscar Hunt tailors, as well as made the rounds at events alongside politicians, sports stars and business people, often sharing the story of his struggles.
However, Baker’s boxing career has since come to an abrupt end. His last fight in Australia was in October 2024 – around the time Operation Galactus was finalised – and since then, has only fought bouts in Thailand. He stopped altogether in November 2025.
Underworld sources claim Baker is an associate of former illicit tobacco players Fadi Haddara and Mohammed “Afghan Ali” Keshtiar, who were instrumental in attempting to form a cartel of organised crime players to rule the illicit tobacco market in early 2023.
Keshtiar was murdered later that year, allegedly on the orders of new tobacco kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad.
Haddara was forced to surrender his alleged stake in the blackmarket tobacco industry to Hamad in early 2024 after weathering a campaign of firebombings and threats to his life. He survived being shot in his driveway last month.
Hamad established a nationwide cartel known as “The Commission” in early 2025, which continues to rule the market despite Hamad being sentenced to life in prison in Iraq earlier this year.
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