Cigarette or E-cigarette ?
Vaping VS Smoking
Isn’t that amazing picture? That makes you want to buy?
A Shanghai vape e-liquid smuggling team is arrested by the police
Recently, the popularity of e-cigarettes has led some to target the business by packaging the smoke from e-cigarettes into home crisps, avoiding customs regulation and tax regulation, and selling them privately in the country without the necessary selling qualification. A few days ago, the Shanghai Minhang District People’s Procuratorate approved the arrest of five criminal suspects for alleged illegal business operations of e-liquids.
Last December, Gu noticed that all the friends around him were vaping e-cigarettes. They said it was cheaper than abroad market. Gu thought about it for a long time and thought it would be profitable to sell it.
But Gu found that a person can only carry 5,000 yuan in the regulations for the entry and exit of tobacco products that can be carried. If you take a trip with 5,000 yuan, you won’t make money at all, and you’ll have to find a few people to do it.
Therefore, Gu considered everyone in his relationship and found that Sheng and Chan were best suited for each other. Chan owns a logistics company, usually collaborate with other businesses to provide international logistics, customs and other business. He also provide international logistics and transportation, customs and other business for other merchants usually.
On the other side, Sheng loves to travel and has more free time, so it is the most convenient for carrying out of the goods.
Therefore, Gu found the opportunity and contact Sheng and Chan, then expressed the thoughts to the two people, and both agreed.
Mix it in a crisper, put it in a box and get out of supervision.
Follow the three-person plan, they paid 200,000 yuan each, and when Gu contacted a foreign seller, Sheng went abroad to talk to the seller about the price and collect the goods in person, After that, Chan would be in charge of clearance of goods, transporting the e-juice from abroad to the domistic country.
Mid to late December 2017, Mr. Sheng went abroad with the 600,000 yuan he had prepared with three people. Sheng agreed to a price of 240 RMB for each bottle of Marlboro e-juice after meeting with the seller and bought 2,500 Marlboro cigarettes in four flavors. Later, he gave the seller the address of a Japanese company and let the other party carry the e-liquid to the site.
After the e-juice were sent to the company, Chan contacted his Japanese friends to help pack the juice into a home crisper and smuggle it back in the name of the Crisper in the company’s crisper container. Mixed into the company of Shanghai fresh-box Container, and return it in the name of the crisper.
After the goods were shipped to Shanghai, Chan took the e-juice out again with the customs clearance of the imported crisper. Then he contacted the transport company to send the e-liquid back to the company’s warehouse.
It was sold in bulk and caught in the process on WeCHAT
Meanwhile, Gu connects with a buyer named Gu B. The price agreed between the two parties is 280 yuan each, Gu calculated, found that after the removal of Labor, customs, transportation, and other costs, and money to make. After the goods were cleared out, Gu contacted Gu B and asked him to pick up the goods.
The other party Gu B himself vapes e-cigarettes on ordinary times, and does wholesale tobacco business without a license, and he also posts messages on Wechat and sells large quantities of e-cigarettes.
According to his statement, he saw his friends smoking e-cigarettes before that. So he thought it was fresh and could be sold on Wechat. So every time a friend went abroad, he asked his friends to bring some by themselves and then he posted on Wechat that imported e-cigarettes and vapes for sale.
I want to buy e-cigarettes. Do you have any goods?
At first, few people contacted the third person Gu A to buy e-liquid. But in one or two, he found that he was often asked if there were any e-liquid for sale. After the other paid for the cigarette, Gu A let the hired Gu B send it to the other by express delivery. So Gu A began to start the business of e-cigarettes rods and e-liquid. This time, the flavors and quantity of the cigarettes purchased by Sheng were pre-ordered by Gu.
As usual, in March of this year, the hired Gu B arrived at the address provided by Gu A, counting the quantity of e-liquid in front of him, to make sure that the goods were the ones he had ordered. After that, Gu A directed the trucking company to move the liquid to a car that the hired Gu come from. At this time, the police and the law enforcement officers of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau arrived on the scene, caught them and seized 2500 electronic cigarettes and e-juice. In addition, a total of 560 e-cigarettes were checked in the warehouses.
Unauthorized wholesale of e-cigarettes and e-liquid in China was arrested
On May 20 last year, The State Tobacco Monopoly administration stated in the notice on strengthening supervision of tobacco monopoly market “Heating non-combustion cigarette like IQOS is itself a tobacco product and does not change the nature of the tobacco.” In accordance with the requirements of relevant laws and regulations, such as the law of the People’s Republic of China on Tobacco Monopoly. Such products shall be included in the supervision according to law and to belong to the raw material tobacco heating non-combustion products, should be investigated and dealt with according to law. That is, the use of e-cigarette as tobacco products into the regulatory scope. No tobacco monopoly license, no sales.
The Office of the prosecutor considers that Gu, Sheng and Chan are engaged in profit-making activities to purchase tobacco e-liquid from abroad for profiting, which had identified the Marlboro brand in the present as tobacco products, the sellers should at least have a license to sell tobacco. None of the three had a license to sell it, but they sold it in bulk without authorization and were found to be illegal.
In addition, Gu A and the hired Gu B were selling without a license and their conduct was suspected of illegal business. Recently, the Minhang Prosecutor’s Office approved the arrest of the five men on suspicion of illegal business operations of tobacco products.
Note: The source of the content is the voice of the law in Shanghai. The title has been revised for reference only.
