Recently, in the "Defending · 2024 Spring and Summer Safety Operation", the Beijing Huanshi Food and Drug Brigade Police and the Tobacco Monopoly Department successfully detected a large case of illegal production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy e-cigarettes, and the whole chain knocked down a number of production, transportation, storage, and sales of fake and shoddy e-cigarette gangs.
Fruit-flavored e-cigarettes are illegally sold in regular stores
In April 2023, the staff of the Dongcheng District Tobacco Monopoly Bureau found in their daily inspections that someone used express parcels to transport fruit-flavored e-cigarettes that the state prohibits the sale of.
In June of the same year, the Dongcheng Public Security Bureau's Food and Medicine Brigade Squadron arrested two suspects selling fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, including the store operator Liu, and seized more than 3,000 boxes of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes. According to Liu's confession, he usually runs an e-cigarette sales store, and has obtained an e-cigarette monopoly license, after the national ban on the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, he found out that these e-cigarettes can still be bought in other places, so he wholesaled from other provinces at prices ranging from 10-15 yuan, and then sold them in the circle of friends and WeChat groups at prices ranging from 100 yuan.
In order to cut off the industrial chain behind Liu's scenes in a timely manner, in accordance with the investigation idea of "all links, all elements, and all chains", the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's Environmental Food and Drug Brigade Corps upgraded the case to a higher level, and set up a special case team with the Dongcheng Public Security Bureau, and jointly carried out the investigation and handling of the case with the Beijing Municipal Tobacco Monopoly Bureau and the Dongcheng District Tobacco Monopoly Bureau.
Focusing on the production, assembly, transportation, sales and other aspects of counterfeit and shoddy e-cigarettes, the task force went deep into 28 regions in 13 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) to carry out investigation and evidence collection, and finally locked the criminal chain of "production-distribution" of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes led by Zhang Moumou and others in many provinces and cities across the country.
In April 2024, on the basis of comprehensively fixing the evidence, the task force organized police and law enforcement personnel to carry out network collection operations in 28 regions in 13 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), successively smashed 6 gangs that produced and sold counterfeit and shoddy e-cigarettes, destroyed 14 illegal production and storage dens, and seized 30 sets of production equipment, more than 110,000 fake and shoddy e-cigarettes and cartridges, as well as a large number of accessories and packaging materials.
Gu Tianyu, squadron leader of the Environmental Food and Medicine Brigade Squadron of the Dongcheng Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, introduced:
Criminal suspect Zhang Moumou himself runs a regular factory for the production of e-cigarette accessories, because of the high sales of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, in order to earn huge profits, with regular production as a cover, entrusting a number of accessories manufacturers to specialize in the production of semi-finished products of their specified specifications and models, and then organizing employees to assemble and process all kinds of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in hidden dens.
Distributors who illegally sell fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in various places purchase goods from Zhang, and sell counterfeit and shoddy e-cigarettes to agents across the country through acquaintances, agents solicit customers on social software, and finally sell them to buyers through logistics and express delivery, and many of them are teenagers. At present, 36 criminal suspects including Zhang Moumou have been criminally detained by the Dongcheng Branch on suspicion of producing and selling fake and shoddy products, and 25 of them have been arrested with the approval of the procuratorate.
The mainland explicitly prohibits the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes
It is reported that Article 26 of the "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes", which will be implemented on May 1, 2022, prohibits the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco flavors and e-cigarettes that can add atomizers by themselves.
Shen Hui, deputy head of the inspection team of the Beijing Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, said:
E-cigarettes, like cigarettes, are subject to supervision in terms of production, sales, transportation, import and export; In addition, the "Law on the Protection of Minors" clearly prohibits the sale of cigarettes to minors, including e-cigarettes "Illegally produced fruit-flavored e-cigarettes not only violate the provisions of the "Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes" that "prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco flavors", but also because of the variety of flavors, fashionable shapes, and low prices, it is easy to attract minors to smoke, and the selection of raw materials, the use of additives, process design, quality control, etc. The addition of unsafe ingredients and other quality and safety hazards seriously endanger the physical and mental health of minors.
In order to protect the healthy growth of minors, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has successively organized and carried out special actions such as "guarding growth" and protecting minors from e-cigarettes, and tobacco monopoly departments at all levels in Beijing have conscientiously implemented the work requirements, and jointly with the public security organs to severely crack down on the production and sale of "milk tea cups" and "cola cans" and other non-national standard, counterfeit and shoddy e-cigarettes; At the same time, strengthen the supervision of cigarette sales outlets, and post warning signs, and resolutely investigate and deal with illegal acts of selling e-cigarettes to minors; In addition, the tobacco department has also actively carried out activities to popularize the law on campus, explain the dangers of smoking e-cigarettes to primary and secondary school students, and enhance minors' awareness of self-protection and their ability to resist temptation.
Special crackdown on the criminal activities of manufacturing and selling counterfeit and shoddy e-cigarettes
Wang An, head of the mobile detachment of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's Environmental Food and Medicine Brigade Corps:
In response to the prominent problems of e-cigarette-related violations and crimes that endanger the health of minors and have strong public reactions, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's Environmental Food and Drug Brigade Corps relies on the "Kunlun 2024" and "Defending · 2024 Spring and Summer Safety Action" to give full play to the advantages of the "public security + administration" law enforcement coordination mechanism, and work with the tobacco monopoly department to strengthen research and research, improve the working mechanism, and strengthen synthetic crackdowns.
Since April this year, in conjunction with the tobacco monopoly department, the global food and drug brigade system has been organized to carry out a special crackdown on the sale of fake and shoddy e-cigarettes on online platforms. Up to now, a total of 15 related cases have been cracked in Beijing and other provinces, 16 criminal gangs have been smashed, 32 dens have been destroyed, 52 people have been criminally detained, more than 80 production equipment, more than 240,000 cigarette cartridges, and 5.4 tons of e-liquid have been seized.
In the next step, the Beijing Huanshi Food and Drug Brigade Police will continue to work with the tobacco department to focus on cracking down on the criminal acts of selling counterfeit and shoddy e-cigarettes to minors, and jointly create a healthy growth environment for minors.
Source: Environmental Food and Medicine Brigade Corps