Nine Arrested, RMB 5 Million Involved: Zhejiang Xiangshan Busts Unlicensed E-Cigarette Sales Network

Reporter Dong Jinghong

Correspondents Hu Xiaodi, Zhang Tingwei

Recently, stylish and uniquely designed fruit-flavored e-cigarettes like "milk tea cups," "cola cans," and "lipstick tubes" have become popular among young people. However, these seemingly "harmless" products are actually "three-no" e-cigarettes.

Recently, the Xiangshan Public Security Bureau, in conjunction with the Xiangshan Tobacco Bureau, launched a concentrated crackdown on illegal sales of "three-no" e-cigarettes, resulting in the arrest of 9 suspects, the dismantling of 6 storage locations, and the seizure of over 18,000 e-cigarettes and more than 30 boxes of tobacco sticks, with a total value exceeding 5 million RMB.

In February of this year, during a joint law enforcement operation with the tobacco department, police discovered a hidden e-cigarette sales point, seizing over 500 e-cigarettes and 30 boxes of tobacco sticks on site.

“From the outside, this store looks like an ordinary e-cigarette sales point. If you’re not a regular customer, the owner won’t sell you the (fruit-flavored e-cigarettes); it’s very well hidden,” said Song Zhihua, a police officer from the Xiangshan Economic Investigation Team.

“Everyone in our line of work knows that in October last year, the state issued regulations prohibiting the sale of non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes. However, fruit-flavored e-cigarettes sell well and have high profits, so I took a chance,” said the store owner, Zhang.

According to authoritative identification by the Zhejiang Tobacco Quality Supervision and Testing Station, the e-cigarettes seized from Zhang were substandard products. Based on Zhang's confession, police quickly apprehended his supplier, Liu, and seized a batch of illegal e-cigarettes from Liu. Investigations revealed that Liu was part of a large e-cigarette sales network spanning multiple provinces and cities across the country. Given the severity of the case, the Xiangshan police subsequently formed a special task force with the tobacco department to conduct a thorough investigation.

After two months of investigation and understanding the hierarchical structure of the sales network, the task force conducted concentrated operations in Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Anhui, Guangdong, and other locations, successfully dismantling a nationwide illegal e-cigarette sales channel.

“From the seized e-cigarettes, we found that they were all disposable non-standard fruit-flavored e-cigarettes disguised as 'milk tea cups,' 'cola cans,' etc., priced between 80 to 200 RMB, which are very attractive and enticing to young people,” said police officer Yang Li.

All these e-cigarettes had foreign language packaging, with no Chinese labels, and did not indicate the manufacturer's name, address, or production date, making them "three-no" products.

Currently, the 9 suspects have been subjected to criminal coercive measures by the police, and the case is under further investigation.