A joint operation conducted by the Food and Drug Administration and Customs and Border Protection resulted in the seizure of nearly 2 million illegal electronic cigarettes, most of which came from China.
The seizures occurred in Chicago in February but were announced by the FDA in a press release on Thursday. The devices taken in the joint operation were valued at $33.8 million. The initiative was part of an effort by federal agencies to prevent illegal e-cigarettes from being smuggled into the country.
The FDA said in its statement that the packages’ product descriptions were vague and inaccurate to disguise the contents and avoid searches and discovery. Once inspected, the contraband, containing illegal e-cigarette brands such as “Snoopy Smoke” and “Raz,” was seized.
“The FDA, working with our federal partners, can and will do more to stop the illegal importation and distribution of e-cigarette products in the United States,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said. “Seizures of illegal e-cigarettes keep products that haven’t been authorized by the FDA out of the United States and out of the hands of our nation’s youth.”
Recently, there has been an uptick in illegal e-cigarette shipments in the United States, prompting action by the FDA and other federal agencies. Such shipments have been known to violate intellectual property rights, as well as legislation such as the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, according to the FDA. The merchandise in this seizure “lacked the mandatory premarket authorization orders from the FDA and therefore cannot be legally marketed or distributed in the United States.”
In recent years, the FDA and CBP have commandeered multiple shipments of illegal e-cigarettes in ports around the country valued at millions of dollars. In 2023, the FDA reported that authorities at Los Angeles International Airport seized a shipment of illegal e-cigarettes worth $18 million. In October 2024, the FDA announced another joint operation with CBP, resulting in the capture of a shipment of illegal e-cigarettes valued at over $76 million.
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“We continue to see an increased number of shipments of vaping-related products packaged and mislabeled to avoid detection,” said Bret Koplow, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “However, we have been successful at preventing these shipments from entering the U.S. supply chain — despite efforts to conceal the true identity of these unauthorized e-cigarette products.”
The FDA has taken steps to prevent such merchandise from being sold at retail locations in the U.S. Recently, it reportedly “issued over 750 warning letters” to companies, cautioning them not to sell the products. It has also filed “civil money penalty complaints against 87 manufacturers and over 175 retailers for their distribution or sale.”