Heated non-combustible cigarettes are new tobacco products, filler with tobacco as the main raw material, containing tobacco characteristic ingredients, is a tobacco monopoly. On the 20th, the police in Jiangdu District, Yangzhou City, reported a case of extraordinarily large heated non-burning cigarettes, a criminal gang with supply, transfer, warehousing, express delivery and network sales system was "one pot end", checking more than 5,000 new types of cigarettes, involving 34 provinces and municipalities across the country, 47 criminal suspects were held criminally responsible, and the funds involved in the case were as high as 320 million yuan.
Two packs of "suspected fake cigarettes" led to a major network case
"Comrade, I seem to have bought a fake cigarette!" On December 6, 2017, two consumers came to the Jiangdu District Tobacco Bureau Bridge Inspection Squadron and said that they had bought two packs of new cigarettes through an online store called "Old Iron Genuine Japanese Purchasing", which tasted a little wrong, suspected that they were fake cigarettes, and asked for identification. The law enforcement personnel initially inspected and determined that the product was not a fake cigarette, but a "smoke bomb". In June 2017, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration explicitly listed four new brand cigarette products as tobacco products and included them in the scope of tobacco product supervision, and the cigarettes provided by these two consumers are the Marlboro and Heets brands mentioned in the administrative regulations. These cigarettes come from abroad, and they enter and sell through "purchasing on behalf of" and other means, which undermines the tobacco monopoly system on the mainland, causing the loss of tax revenue, which is illegal business.
Case analysis
The tobacco department learned that the "old iron genuine Japanese purchasing" was quite influential among smokers and sold a large volume, so it handed over the clue to the Jiangdu police. The police followed the line and found that the business activities of "old iron genuine Japanese purchasing" were quite active, and in the past six months, only to Jiangdu, it sold more than 60,000 yuan, which has reached the standard for criminal filing. The police judged that there was a criminal gang behind the store, which had a perfect supply, transfer, warehousing, express delivery and network sales system. On December 13, Jiangdu police and the District Tobacco Bureau set up a "12.6 new cigarette" task force to carry out investigations. In the following year or so, the police went to Xinxin, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou and other places, moved to more than 20 cities, and after four concentrated arrests, arrested 34 criminal suspects, all of whom were successfully prosecuted.
The "big guy behind the scenes" has 19 accounts and 7 mobile phone numbers
34 suspects were prosecuted and the case was brought to an end. However, there is also a suspect Xiao Xian who failed to end the investigation, leaving the police handling the case like a fish in the throat. In 2018, the Ningbo police once handled a case of illegal online sales of heated non-burning cigarettes, involving a huge amount of money and many people involved, and there was a suspect in the case, who was imprisoned for illegally selling heated non-burning cigarettes for more than 200,000 yuan. At the beginning of 2019, after a large number of data investigations, the police found that Xiaoxian had frequent contact with Dagua, and there were cigarette sales transactions, and the amount was huge.
On-site inspection by case-handling personnel
The police arrested Xiaoxian, and after his arrest, he truthfully explained the channels, quantities and transaction methods of purchasing smoke bombs, and confirmed that the big melon was Xiaoxian's main supply line, and the case reached more than 800,000 yuan. The police then found that Dagua was quite cunning, and in the case in Zhejiang, he avoided the heavy and light, and only confessed the facts of the case related to Zhejiang, the value of the case was only more than 200,000, and the sentence was relatively light.
Jiangdu police immediately joined hands with the Ningbo police to conduct in-depth research and judgment on Dagua, and found that there were more than 10 bank accounts, 7 mobile phone numbers, 5 Alipay accounts, and 4 WeChat accounts under his name, with complex and changeable transaction methods, and the flow involved in the case was nearly 10 million yuan. According to these clues, the big melon and the sales network behind it were accurately locked by the police.
At present, there is no legal source of "smoke bombs" on the market
According to the evidence provided by the Jiangdu police, Dagua, who has already served his sentence, has been given additional punishments, and the sales network behind it is also clearly displayed in front of the police handling the case. In recent years, Dagua has recruited more than 10 people, including courier point owners, truck drivers, and the captain of the "camel team" responsible for bringing goods out of the cooperation zone, forming a criminal gang with supply, transshipment, warehousing, transportation, express delivery and network sales. After clarifying the identity information of the gang suspects, the police handling the case went south to Guangdong and Fujian and north to Xinjiang to arrest the gang members one by one.
New types of cigarettes seized
On September 21, 2020, a plane flying directly from Osaka, Japan, to Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport landed, and the female suspect Xiaojie ended more than two years of absconding life and surrendered herself. Xiaojie was responsible for organizing the supply of goods in Japan, accepting orders from domestic buyers through multiple online platforms, and then remotely directing agents abroad to illegally operate new cigarettes throughout the country, and absconded after the incident. Her arrest brought the case to an end.
Chen Hanya, a lawyer at Jiangsu Optimus Prime Law Firm, said that smuggling and selling heated non-burning tobacco products is not allowed, and the act has evaded the customs duties that should be paid, and is suspected of smuggling and illegal business operations. According to relevant regulations, enterprises or individuals that have obtained a tobacco monopoly retail license shall purchase goods from the local tobacco monopoly wholesale enterprise and accept the supervision and management of the tobacco monopoly license issuing authority. Imported heated non-combustible cigarettes on the market have no legal source and are not allowed to be sold in China according to law. Heated non-burning cigarettes are not supplied by tobacco monopoly wholesale enterprises, and even if a tobacco monopoly retail license is obtained, they cannot be sold at present. (The character in the text is a pseudonym) Correspondent Zhaoli Sang Yi Huaxuan Yangzi Evening News/Purple Cow News Reporter Chen Yong
Source: Purple Cow News