Minneapolis CBP officers seize 165,000 illicit vaping products

MINNEAPOLIS- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Minneapolis-St. Paul recently seized pallets of illicit vaping products for violating the U.S Food and Drug Administration Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. All the shipments, originated from China and were destined to a wholesaler in California.

Local CBP officers were alerted to these shipments from intelligence gathered from the Chicago Field Office. Officers inspected all pallets and discovered Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and refill cartridges. In total, CBP officers seized 90,000 illicit ENDS and 75,000 refill cartridges. CBP and FDA personnel determined these should be seized for violating the FD&C Act due to the lack of required FDA marketing authorization and the tobacco products were found to be adulterated and misbranded.

The shipments contained several flavors of unauthorized vaping products including Blue Razz, Iced Lush, Blue Lightning, Gum Mint, Turkish Tobacco, and Classic Tobacco. The Manufacturer's Suggest Retail Price would have been more than $1.47 million.

"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, Chicago Field Office. "U.S. Customs and Border Protection'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."

Earlier this month Chicago CBP highlighted an operation seizing almost 4.7 million e-cigarettes with a MSRP of more than $86.5 million. Additionally, just last week the Justice Department, together with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, announced that recent actions targeting unauthorized flavored e-cigarettes, or vapes, resulted in the seizure of more than 2.1 million illicit vaping products taken from five distributors and six retailers across seven different states.

The e-cigarette shipments violated the FDA's Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, lacking the mandatory premarket authorization orders from the FDA and therefore cannot be legally marketed or distributed in the United States.

CBP provides basic import information about admissibility requirements and the clearance process for e-commerce goods and encourages buyers to confirm that their purchases and the importation of those purchases comply with any state and federal import regulations.

Follow CBP on X @CBPChicago and @DFOChicago. Visit CBP's YouTube channel to learn more about how CBP's Office of Field Operations secures our nation's borders.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is America's frontline: the nation's largest law enforcement organization and the world's first unified border management agency. The 65,000+ men and women of CBP protect America on the ground, in the air, and on the seas. We enforce safe, lawful travel and trade and ensure our country's economic prosperity. We enhance the nation's security through innovation, intelligence, collaboration, and trust.

• Topics
• Cargo Security
• Office of Field Operations
• Port Security
• Search and Seizure