Case Worth Over 130 Million Yuan, 35 Arrested: Gaotang, Shandong Solves Major Illegal E-Cigarette Op

Fruit taste and exquisite packaging, a "cross-dressing" that has long been banned by the statee-cigarettesStill appear on the market. Recently, the Public Security Bureau of Gaotang County, Shandong Province, based on clues, successfully cracked a cross-provincial illegal business of e-cigarettes.The entire chain destroyed gangs that produced, transported and sold non-national standard e-cigarettes, involving a value of more than 130 million yuan. 35 suspects were taken by Gaotang Public Security Bureau in accordance with the law.

Fruit-flavored e-cigarettes appear around schools

After the Spring Festival this year, the Gaotang County Public Security Bureau and the County Tobacco Monopoly Bureau found in a joint operation that electronic cigarettes in the shape of "coke cans" and "milk tea cups" were sold in a canteen and supermarket near a local school. suche-cigarette productsThe quality is worrying and the safety hazards are prominent, and it is highly inductive to minors who are not yet mentally mature. Many parents who pick up their children have reported to the police that young people like middle school and high school students often come and go in and buy and smoke e-cigarettes.

In order to effectively protect the physical and mental health of minors, Gaotang Public Security immediately formed a joint investigation team with the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau and other departments to investigate the case.# p#pagination title #e#

"These e-cigarettes are mainly fruity flavors, and the audience is mainly young people. The prices range from tens of yuan to 200 yuan. Some children don't know the dangers and think that e-cigarettes are not harmful. They just feel novel. They will buy them and smoke them together, which seriously endangers the healthy physical and mental growth of young people, and is very harmful." Hu Xiaojian, squadron leader of the Trade Squadron of the Economic Investigation Brigade of the Gaotang County Public Security Bureau who participated in the handling of the case, said.

According to relevant laws and regulations, to engage in e-cigarette wholesale and retail business, you must have a tobacco monopoly retail license certified and issued by the national tobacco regulatory department.At the same time, the e-cigarette management measures clearly prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco flavors and e-cigarettes that can be added with aerosol, and prohibit the sale of e-cigarette products to minors. The mandatory national standards for e-cigarettes also clearly stipulate that e-cigarette products should not be induceable to minors, and the characteristic flavor of the product should not present other flavors than tobacco.

However, manufacturing and selling counterfeit e-cigarettes costs more than ten yuan, and can be sold for one to two hundred yuan in the hands of consumers.Inspired by huge profits, someone went against the trend and sold fruit-flavored e-cigarettes without a license. After further research and analysis, the police found that most of the e-cigarette sources appearing on the market in Gaotang came from somewhere in Wang, Dongchangfu District, Liaocheng City. Subsequently, the police conducted key investigations around Wang.

Online "WeChat" sales in bulk #p#pagination title #e#

After fully grasping Wang's criminal evidence, Gaotang police arrested him. After interrogation, the police found that he not only sold e-cigarettes in his store, but also used social media such as WeChat to become a "WeChat merchant" online and sold a large number of illegal e-cigarettes through express logistics, involving a huge amount of money.

Subsequently, the task force successively arrested Chen, Ding and other agents by conducting research and judgment on their WeChat, Alipay, Tenpay, bank cards and other funds. During the interrogation of the suspect,The police found that most of them believed that illegal sales of e-cigarettes were just a "marginal ball" of the law. They did not realize the seriousness of illegal sales of e-cigarettes without a license and were lucky.

With the gradual deepening of case investigations and the sorting out of the upper and lower levels of the criminal chain,An illegal e-cigarette business network produced from Shenzhen and sold to more than 20 provinces across the country has gradually surfaced.# p#pagination title #e#

After several consecutive days of investigation work, the police handling the case have a preliminary understanding of the organizational structure and production links of the enterprise involved in the case. The upstream illegal gang in the case is distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hubei. It is a full-chain illegal gang integrating supply organization, e-commerce order receiving, e-cigarette sales, logistics delivery and other links.

Do illegal things under the guise of legality

After investigation, the origin of the gang was an e-cigarette production company in Shenzhen. It used e-cigarette chips customized at a technology company to assemble and produce them, and then sold them offline using the Internet. Finally, e-cigarettes flowed into retailer Wang and others. The person in charge of the production company has a strong awareness of anti-investigation. In order to avoid crackdowns, the company normally produces qualified products during the day and secretly produces illegal e-cigarettes at night.

As the time for investigation of the case was ripe, the police decided to carry out a comprehensive network closure and successfully destroyed this criminal gang that illegally produced and sold e-cigarettes. They destroyed one illegal e-cigarette production den and one illegal e-cigarette chip production den, and seized a large number of semi-finished products on the spot. Finished e-cigarettes, chips,the cartridge, smoking equipment,smoke oiland related production equipment.

At the same time, the police expanded and identified illegal e-cigarette networks covering 20 provinces including Shandong, Heilongjiang, Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu.The total amount involved was more than 130 million yuan.# p#pagination title #e#At present, 35 criminal suspects have been taken by Gaotang Public Security Bureau in accordance with the law, and the case is under further trial.