Taizhou Police Bust Cross-Border Illegal Tobacco Stick Operation Worth Over 15 Million Yuan

Heated non-combustible products are very popular because their taste is highly matched with cigarettes, but the sale of imported heated non-combustible products is prohibited in China.

Recently, Yuhuan police cracked a case of illegal cross-border trading of e-cigarettes and bombs. An illegal cross-border cigarette and bomb sales chain was successfully destroyed, 11 criminal suspects were arrested, 9 people were detained, and the amount involved was initially found to exceed 15 million yuan.

Cai is 30 years old. He originally ran a tobacco specialty store in Chumen, Yuhuan. However, after two or three years of operation, the business is still tepid. Until the beginning of 2018, Cai discovered that the number of smokers coming to the store to inquire about e-cigarette cartridges was increasing.

“Cigarette bombs are cigarette holders for heated non-burning electronic cigarettes. They are also commonly known as new heated non-burning tobacco products and are consumables. The length of each cigarette bomb is close to one-third of that of a traditional cigarette. You can smoke without igniting it and insert it into a heated non-burning smoking set. There is no ash, open fire, tar, and second-hand smoke hazard.

At present, tobacco-type cigarettes are tobacco products. Manufacturers are not currently allowed to produce and sell them in China. Smokers can only purchase them through overseas purchasing, and each person can only purchase one or two cigarettes at a time, resulting in a short supply in the cigarette bomb market.

After capturing the pain points in the market, Cai began to find ways to find sources of goods. In June 2018, Cai successfully hooked up with Yin of Jiaojiang and began to purchase Japanese versions of cigarette bombs, and sold them through WeChat circle of friends. The profit of each piece was more than 60 yuan. With sufficient supply, monopoly in sales, and a huge market, Cai's cigarette and bomb business is becoming increasingly prosperous.

After receiving clues, the police cracked down on the illegal operation of cigarettes and bombs.

This year, the Provincial Public Security Department strongly launched a special operation to clean the Internet 2019 to crack down on Internet-related crimes. At the end of March, after receiving clues handed over by the tobacco department that Cai had illegally sold cigarettes, the Yuhuan Municipal Public Security Bureau attached great importance to it and quickly established a special task force to mobilize elite police from multiple departments such as public security, criminal investigation, and cyber police to fully investigate the case. In less than a week, the procedures of filing a case, investigation, and fixing evidence were completed.
 

From April 2 to 3, the task force closed the Internet at the same time in Yuhuan, Jiaojiang and other places, arrested Cai and four suspects including his online contacts Yin and Shang in one fell swoop, and seized more than 260 Marlboro HEETS and other cigarettes on the spot., more than 500 smuggled and counter-flowed cigarettes such as Qixing Liqun, and seized 1 computer and 5 mobile phones for illegal sales.

Through digging deep into clues, the police discovered that there was a fixed fourth-level sales network behind the illegal operation of cigarettes and bombs. After Huang and Huang Moude in Liaoning purchased large quantities of cigarettes and bombs from Japanese manufacturers, they smuggled them to China by ship and sold them to Shangmou, Wang and others in Jiaojiang. Shangmou then wholesale the cigarettes and bombs to the next company Yin, and finally sold them to Cai, Yuhuan.

After locking in the identity information, foothold and warehouse locations of the online personnel, the task force went to Shandong on April 10 and successfully captured Huang and Chu. On the same day, Huang Moude was arrested in Jiaojiang. On May 21, Wang was also arrested in Weihai, Shandong. So far, a total of 11 criminal suspects have been arrested and 9 people have been detained. It has been initially found that the amount involved exceeds 15 million yuan.

At present, the case is still under further investigation, and involves smuggling and is referred to the Taizhou Customs Anti-Smuggling Branch for investigation.

Remind again: According to Article 225 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the crime of illegal business operations refers to the violation of national regulations and the operation of franchised, monopolized goods or other restricted items as stipulated by laws and administrative regulations without permission. Goods that are restricted from trading is a criminal act.

After IQOS cigarette bombs were declared a tobacco monopoly control, domestic sales such as Internet and WeChat were illegal according to the above-mentioned laws.

The penalties for illegal business operations are as follows:

If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall also or shall only be sentenced to a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal income; if the circumstances are particularly serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years and a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal income or confiscation of property. It should be particularly reminded that the crime of illegal business operations is a criminal act. As long as the acts stipulated in the specific rules of the Criminal Law are committed, the crime is completed, and the amount involved is a reference for the severity of the sentence. However, as long as the illegal sale of IQOS cigarettes and bombs is committed, it constitutes a crime.