The police arrested illegal sales gangs and made profits by selling IQOS cigarettes in Wechat business.

　　□ Legal Daily reporter Chen Dongsheng　

　　□ Legal Daily correspondent Cai Xiangqian Chen Lulu

　　In recent years, with the gimmick of "smoking cessation effect", the new tobacco product IQOS cigarette bomb has become the new favorite of smokers. IQOS is a new type of tobacco product that heats a thin sheet made of tobacco through electronic equipment, commonly known as "smoke bomb" in the market. According to China’s laws and regulations, it is forbidden to sell IQOS in China, but some people "sell dog meat by selling sheep’s head" illegally through the Internet for profiteering.

　　Not long ago, under the guidance and support of Huzhou Public Security Bureau, Nanxun District Public Security Bureau of Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province cracked an illegal business case of selling cigarettes and bombs, arrested six suspects, seized more than 40 IQOS cigarettes and smuggled more than 400 boxes of 120 varieties of cigars, involving more than 5 million yuan. According to reports, this case is the largest cross-provincial illegal business case of IQOS cigarettes and bombs in Huzhou City.

　　It is reported that in March this year, Huzhou Tobacco Monopoly Bureau handed over a clue of illegally operating IQOS cigarettes to the Economic Investigation Brigade of the District Public Security Bureau. The Economic Investigation Brigade immediately set up a task force to carry out investigations and found that buyers all took goods from sellers through WeChat group. The seller’s WeChat nickname was "A professional monopoly IQOS cigarettes", which sold a large number of cigarettes online.

　　After investigation, the police found that there were five micro-signals selling cigarettes at the same delivery point. Behind these micro-signals, there were two people, namely Luo Mowang, 32, and Xu Mouwei, 29.

　　Luo Mowang started to operate cigarette bombs in September 2018. His company adopts the e-commerce plus Wechat business model, that is, adding customers’ WeChat from e-commerce customers (buying e-cigarette peripheral products) for private chat, and then selling illegal cigarette bombs. Each order adopts the mode of forwarding, that is, after collecting and sorting the order, it is sent to the home via WeChat, and the home directly delivers it. One of the employees who sold cigarettes was Xu Mouwei. He found that cigarettes were profitable in the sales process, so he secretly planned to go it alone after getting familiar with them. However, Luo Mowang only sold cigarettes for two months and then stopped selling them. He switched to cigars.

　　In February of this year, after consulting with Luo Mowang, Xu Mouwei bought five WeChat resource numbers from Luo Mowang at a price of 80,000 yuan. Xu Mouwei immediately set up his own business and rented a place in Huli District of Xiamen City to operate cigarette bombs. He bound three micro-signals to his own bank card, and the other two to his spouse Chen Mou Ping’s bank card. And establish a "delivery group", set up 3 laptops to synchronize "office". Chen Mou, the father-in-law, is responsible for packing, posting the express bill, and delivering it to the courier.

　　In this way, Xu Mouwei began to prepare the illegal cigarette bomb business step by step, selling it in the WeChat circle of friends and WeChat group, and five micro-signals operated at the same time. When business is good, you can sell thousands of cigarettes a day.

　　After digging deep into the case, the task force found the illegal sales gang of cigarettes and bombs where Xu Mouwei was located. Based in Xiamen, since October 2018, through Taobao, WeChat circle of friends and other platforms, it has sold tobacco products and cigarettes to customers all over the country by express delivery, thus leading to a national sales network.

　　On May 29th, the task force organized a number of police officers to receive the net under the unified command of the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Municipal Bureau. Going to Xiamen and Anxi, the operation was divided into two groups, and six suspects were arrested on the spot, and a large number of cigarettes and smuggled cigars were seized. Xu Mouwei, Luo Mowang and others were arrested by Nanxun District Branch of Huzhou Public Security Bureau on suspicion of illegal business operation.

　　At present, the case is being further processed.