Recently, the first criminal in the illegal operation of e-cigarette in Yantai has been arrested according to law by the Zhifu District People’s Procuratorate of Yantai City, China.
On May 7, the Yantai Municipal Tobacco Monopoly Bureau received a report from the public that it was reported that someone sold a famous brand vape cartridges and sold tobacco products without obtaining a tobacco monopoly license. The network security team of the public security organs quickly arrested the suspects Mr.Zhao, Mr.Zhu, and Mr.Pan.
After an investigation by the Zhifu District People’s Procuratorate of Yantai City, Mr.Zhao, Mr.Zhu, and Mr.Pan had violated the Criminal law by illegally selling at least RMB 140,000 in e-cigarettes without obtaining a tobacco sale permit. As a result of the crime of illegal business, the government decided to approve the arrest.
In October 2017, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration issued the “Notification on the Identification and Inspection of New-type Cigarette Products”. The IQOS, GLO, Ploom and REVO types of new cigarette products were judged to contain tobacco-specific components and belonged to tobacco products, included in the cigarette identification test list.
“Imported tobacco monopoly products can only be operated by companies that have obtained special licenses for specialty tobacco monopoly operations.” The case handling prosecutor said that criminal suspects obviously don’t have the qualification to import tobacco monopoly products, and they don’t have a tobacco retail license, and they don’t have the right to sell cigarettes and other tobacco monopoly products in China.
According to the law, illegal sales of cigarettes for sale amounted to 50,000 yuan, which means “serious circumstances” and constitute an offense of illegal business. The criminal suspects in this case illegally purchased cigarettes from abroad for sale in the country. The number of illegal business operations amounted to 140,000 yuan, which has been suspected of illegal business operations.
