Top Takeaways:
- 90,000 vapes, 75,000 cartridges seized in shipments from China bound for California.
- Products lacked FDA authorization and included flavors like Blue Razz and Turkish Tobacco.
- Enforcement intensifies, following recent seizures of 4.7 million e-cigarettes in Chicago and 2.1 million by DOJ/FDA.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, have intercepted shipments containing 90,000 illicit electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and 75,000 refill cartridges, seizing the products for violating the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
The pallets, which originated in China and were bound for a California wholesaler, were flagged after intelligence from CBP’s Chicago Field Office. Inspection revealed unauthorized flavored products such as Blue Razz, Iced Lush, Blue Lightning, Gum Mint, Turkish Tobacco, and Classic Tobacco. The shipments carried a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of more than $1.47 million.
CBP and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that the goods were adulterated and misbranded, as they lacked the required premarket authorization to be legally marketed in the U.S.
“The excellent intelligence sharing helped our officers identify and intercept these shipments that could potentially harm the health and wellbeing of people within our communities,” said LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, director of field operations at the Chicago Field Office. “CBP’s trade enforcement mission places a significant emphasis on intercepting illicit products, and we will continue to work with our consumer product safety partners to identify and seize unsafe and illicit goods.”
The action follows a string of recent enforcement efforts. Earlier this month, Chicago CBP seized nearly 4.7 million unauthorized e-cigarettes valued at more than $86.5 million. Last week, the Justice Department and FDA reported joint operations that removed more than 2.1 million illicit vaping products from five distributors and six retailers across seven states.
CBP has urged importers and consumers to verify that products meet federal requirements before shipment or purchase, warning that unauthorized vaping goods remain subject to seizure.
