Monthly sales of counterfeit unbranded vaping devices topped 100,000 yuan — police dismantle the cri

Recently, the Public Security Bureau of Jingtai County, Baiyin City, Gansu Province, together with the county tobacco bureau and the economic investigation and forest police units, carried out a coordinated crackdown in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hunan and other places on an illegal tobacco products case in its jurisdiction. They successfully arrested 4 suspects, destroyed 5 storage, sales, and mailing/dispatching distribution hubs for e-cigarettes, seized goods worth 1.8454 million yuan, and involved over 5 million yuan in the case, cutting off a multi-layered underground sales network for counterfeit and substandard e-cigarettes.

On July 6, 2023, the Jingtai County Public Security Bureau received a lead transferred from the Jingtai County Tobacco Bureau, stating that someone was using logistics and delivery services to mail large quantities of e-cigarette packages in violation of regulations, suspected to be counterfeit and substandard e-cigarette products.

The economic investigation unit immediately set up a special task force to conduct a full investigation. The work found that these counterfeit e-cigarettes had no manufacturer name, no factory address, no production hygiene license code, and even no ingredient list. In just one month, the transaction flow exceeded 100,000 yuan, seriously endangering consumers' health.

With strong support from the Jingtai County Public Security Bureau's cybercrime unit, the task force actively expanded the investigation, tracing the source of the goods upstream and the flow downstream. After investigating the hideouts and warehouses, they fully identified the criminal gang engaged in the illegal operation and sales of e-cigarettes. The gang had a clear organizational structure, with distinct roles in supply sourcing, online order taking, e-cigarette sales, and logistics delivery, forming what appeared to be a complex but actually clearly divided criminal chain.

Based on the leads obtained, the task force split into four teams and traveled to Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Hunan to carry out arrests in an orderly manner. They successfully arrested 4 suspects and destroyed 5 e-cigarette storage, mailing/sales, and distribution hubs. At the scene, they seized 4,746 fruit-flavored disposable e-cigarettes, 15,260 e-cigarette pods, 500 device bodies, 1 barcode scanner, 4 waybill printers, and more than 1,000 packing bags. They also seized 121,500 yuan in cash and confiscated 1 work computer and 7 mobile phones. The value of the seized goods was 1.8454 million yuan, and the amount involved exceeded 5 million yuan.

At present, the task force has completed a full-chain crackdown on the case, including supply, distribution, and retail links. During interrogation, the 4 suspects confessed to their crimes, and this major interprovincial case involving the production and sale of counterfeit and substandard e-cigarettes has been successfully solved.