Case value reaches RMB 120 million: Gansu police dismantle major illegal e-cigarette manufacturing a

According to Xinhua News Agency on August 1, reporters from the Gansu Provincial Public Security Department learned that recently, the Jingning County Public Security Bureau in Gansu Province cracked a major series of illegal operations case, dismantling a cross-border e-cigarette manufacturing and trafficking network, arresting 11 main suspects, and destroying 2 production sites and 2 production lines, with a total value of 120 million RMB involved.

It is understood that in March of this year, the Jingning County Tobacco Monopoly Bureau obtained clues about a certain department store illegally selling e-cigarette products during law enforcement inspections. The Jingning County Public Security Bureau immediately established a special task force for the illegal operation case, using various investigative methods to capture suspects Liu and Hu in Guangdong, Guangxi, and 13 cities across 5 provinces, fully grasping the operational model and structural system of the underground illegal e-cigarette manufacturing and trafficking network.

Subsequently, the special task force police set up a net and accurately captured the upper-level suspects Li and Peng, dismantling the e-cigarette processing sites they operated, seizing 16,196 finished e-cigarettes, 2,100 semi-finished products, 3,508,000 components, 445 kilograms of metal parts, and 860.7 kilograms of e-liquid. It was found that since 2021, suspects Li and Peng had established processing sites in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, illegally producing e-cigarettes for sale domestically and internationally, with hundreds of downstream distributors and agents involved, accumulating a total amount of 120 million RMB.

The image shows the e-cigarette production line seized by the police. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Currently, all 11 main suspects have been subjected to criminal coercive measures, and the case is under further investigation.