13 Suspects, 61 Million Yuan in Case Value! Urumqi Solves First End-to-End Case of Producing and Sel

Tianshan Net-Xinjiang Daily News (Reporter Ren Chunxiang, Today’s update) On May 22, a reporter learned from the Urumqi Tobacco Monopoly Bureau that, recently, under the coordination of the inspection detachment of the regional tobacco monopoly bureau, the bureau, together with the Urumqi Public Security Bureau, cracked the city’s first end-to-end case involving the production and sale of counterfeit registered-trademark e-cigarettes. The case spanned multiple provinces, with suspects covering every link from production, supply, sales, to transportation, and the total value involved reached 61 million yuan.

On April 15, the Xiaocaohu Police Checkpoint in Urumqi seized 200 cartons containing 40,000 counterfeit registered-trademark e-cigarettes. Photo by Liu Jie

On April 15, the Urumqi Tobacco Monopoly Bureau received feedback from the Xiaocaohu Police Checkpoint in Urumqi that a vehicle carrying a large quantity of e-cigarettes without the corresponding transport permit had been found during a routine inspection. Tobacco monopoly enforcement officers were quickly dispatched to the scene and found that the truck was carrying 200 cartons, or 40,000 e-cigarettes, but the driver could not provide the required transport documents.

After preliminary determination, the e-cigarettes were identified as counterfeit registered-trademark products, and the case was handed over to the public security authorities. The Intellectual Property Crime Investigation Team of the Food, Drugs and Environment Crime Investigation Division of the Urumqi Public Security Bureau filed the case and initially determined that it involved the crimes of counterfeit trademark infringement, selling goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks, and illegally manufacturing and selling illegally manufactured trademark labels, with an estimated value of 7 million yuan.

The Urumqi Public Security Bureau formed a special task force and sent police officers to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Yiwu, and the Khorgos Port to carry out investigations, while the Urumqi Tobacco Monopoly Bureau assigned inspectors to assist in the case.

After more than a month of investigation, a counterfeit e-cigarette crime network involving multiple links and the full chain was uncovered. The criminal gang led by Yao, which had long been selling counterfeit e-cigarettes, used branches set up in various places to receive orders, organize production and shipment, and handle logistics transport, sending counterfeit e-cigarettes overseas for sale and forming a complete production-supply-sales-transport chain for counterfeit e-cigarettes.

According to the initial investigation, investigators seized finished and semi-finished counterfeit e-cigarette products at a production facility in Jiangxi, with an estimated value of about 10 million yuan. In addition, from November 2022 to April this year, the gang produced and sold more than 250,000 counterfeit e-cigarette products, involving over 44 million yuan. The case involves 13 suspects, and the total value has reached 61 million yuan.

It is understood that during the investigation, Yao was still raising funds, purchasing e-cigarette accessories, and organizing relevant personnel to produce counterfeit e-cigarettes for sale.

At present, some of the suspects in the case have been arrested by the police, and the case is under further investigation.