Feds seize over 2 million illegal vapes in national sweep

Federal officials confiscated more than 2.1 million illegal e-cigarette and vaping products from various operations across seven states, according to a Thursday statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. Officials raided five distribution warehouses and six retail locations across Florida, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Arizona, Illinois, and North Carolina, according to the DOJ.

What made the products illegal? Various retailers and retail suppliers were marketing electronic nicotine delivery products, or “vapes,” that were misbranded and had not received FDA approval, prosecutors said. Dangerous, unauthorized e-cigarettes are commonly smuggled in from China to be sold near schools and military bases, Attorney General Pam Bondi said. She called this month’s raids just the beginning of the government’s enforcement actions.

According to the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration warned retailers and distributors that their vaping devices were unauthorized, but federal inspections and purchases by undercover agents showed the groups continued selling the products anyway. Officials are taking enforcement action against both the companies distributing the illegal devices and the gas stations and bodegas allegedly purchasing them for retail.

The FDA in 2020 banned most flavored e-cigarettes after warning the products were causing U.S. teens to become addicted to nicotine. Today, the agency has authorized only 39 flavored vaping devices for sale.

Dig deeper: Read Heather Frank’s report in WORLD Magazine about the FDA allowing menthol-flavored vapes on the market.