$34 Million of Illegal Vapes Seized in FDA Joint Operation

After months of inaction and uncertainty, the FDA appears to have now resumed its fight against illegal e-cigarettes. Announced on May 22, 2025, was the seizure of nearly $34 million of illicit products. The thing is, these newly announced seizures actually occurred more than 3 months ago in February 2025. 

The delay in reporting is likely due to the aforementioned uncertainty within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the widely reported job cuts that occurred recently. But whatever the reason, the announcement is likely a sign that things are getting back to some sort of normal.

The announced seizure, a joint operation with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) focused on illegal vapes imported from China and bound for distributors all across the country. The seized shipments are said to have attempted to evade duties, as well as avoid the sort of review that would have seen them turned away at the border, by having vague descriptions and incorrect contents values on the paperwork. 

Upon inspection, CBP agents discovered a wide range of e-cigarettes from brands that include Snoopy Smoke, Raz, AiRMEZ, Off-Stamp, and others. It seems safe to assume that none of the seized products had current marketing authorization within the United States. 

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, is quoted as saying:

“The FDA, working with our federal partners, can and will do more to stop the illegal importation and distribution of e-cigarette products in the United States. Seizures of illegal e-cigarettes keep products that haven’t been authorized by the FDA out of the United States and out of the hands of our nation’s youth.”

Some of the shipments, it is reported, not only violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), but seized for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations for unauthorized use of protected trademarks. Standard guidelines for seized illegal or violating products state that they should be disposed of accordingly. In the case of e-cigarettes and related tobacco products, that generally means they will be destroyed.

Whether this latest announcement will indeed be the start of a resumption of enforcement activity by the anti-vape joint task force created last year is unclear. The FDA statement was keen to point out that these seizures are yet another example of the coordinated actions across numerous federal agencies to prevent the distribution and sale of illegal e-cigarette products. 

“We continue to see an increased number of shipments of vaping-related products packaged and mislabeled to avoid detection. However, we have been successful at preventing these shipments from entering the U.S. supply chain – despite efforts to conceal the true identity of these unauthorized e-cigarette products.” – Acting FDA CTP Director Bret Koplow

However, unless the FDA intends to drip-feed news of all the other seizures that have occurred since February (which seems unlikely, as they are usually very keen to shout about this sort of thing and not known for sitting on news), the very fact that they are talking about actions that are now months in the past could tell a different story.