Key takeaway: Recently, Beiliu police dismantled a cross-provincial chain involved in the illegal manufacture and sale of counterfeit vaping products. Five suspects were formally arrested, with the case involving more than RMB 30 million.
Recently, the Economic Investigation Team of the Beiliu City Public Security Bureau successfully dismantled a cross-provincial illegal production and sale chain of counterfeit e-cigarettes, arresting 5 criminal suspects and involving over 30 million RMB.In February 2023, police from the Economic Investigation Team discovered that dozens of people were illegally producing, processing, and selling e-cigarette products at an electronic factory in a township of Beiliu City. After obtaining this lead, the Economic Investigation Team immediately organized police forces to conduct preliminary investigations on the site.
Through clue sorting and analysis, the Economic Investigation Team found that the criminal gang had formed an industrial chain for the illegal production and sale of counterfeit e-cigarettes. After grasping the organizational network structure of the criminal gang, the activity patterns of the main suspects, and their methods of operation, the Economic Investigation Team, in conjunction with the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, Market Supervision Administration, and other departments, conducted raids on multiple illegal e-cigarette processing and production sites and storage locations in Yulin City, Guangxi, and organized a focused operation in Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hunan to capture suspects. A total of 4 production sites and 4 storage sites were dismantled, 2 sales gangs were eliminated, 20 criminal suspects were arrested, and over 10,000 e-cigarettes from various major brands, more than 1,120 anti-counterfeiting labels, over 39,000 e-cigarette rods, over 64,000 e-cigarette packaging boxes, more than 160,000 anti-counterfeiting codes, and a large number of production materials and equipment were seized, with the involved amount exceeding 30 million RMB. 
Currently, the 5 criminal suspects have been legally arrested.
Investigations revealed that the suspects, including Zhong Moupeng, Deng Moujing, Deng Moucui, Ye Mouming, and Teng Moub, opened various brand e-cigarette production sites in Yulin City and Beiliu City to illegally provide processing and production services for upstream distributors in a materials processing model. To evade detection, the gang members disassembled the various components of the e-cigarettes, produced them separately at different locations, and then assembled the components at a "main factory" to complete the production of the finished e-cigarettes.
