Supply Chain of Unauthorized Chinese Vapes in the U.S.

A brightly packaged disposable vape can begin its journey in a factory in Shenzhen, China, pass through exporters and U.S. distributors, and end up behind the counter of a neighborhood smoke shop, even if it has never been authorized for sale in the United States.

The products are often flavored and designed to attract young users, with features such as built-in video games, Bluetooth speakers, and fruit or candy flavors. More than half of young people who reported using electronic cigarettes in the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey said they had used Elf Bar products. More than 20% reported using Esco Bars. Both brands are among the many disposable vapes that have not been authorized for sale in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration currently lists 48 e-cigarettes that may lawfully be sold in the country. That means the vast majority of flavored disposable vapes commonly found in smoke shops are unauthorized. Many of the most recognizable brands, including Elf Bar, EB Design, Lost Mary, and Geek Bar, have been the subject of FDA enforcement actions. In 2024, the agency warned 14 online retailers over the sale of unauthorized products, including Elf Bar/EB Design and Lost Mary.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="Disposable electronic cigarette devices made by the Chinese brand HQD are displayed for sale at Vapes N Smoke in Pinecrest, Fla., Monday, June 26, 2023. Since 2020, the number of different e-cigarette devices for sale in the U.S. has exploded to more than 9,000, a nearly three-fold increase driven almost entirely by a wave of disposable vapes from China. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)" class="wp-image-4752542" height="683" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/AP23177811914838.jpg" width="1024" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Disposable electronic cigarette devices made by the Chinese brand HQD are displayed for sale at Vapes N Smoke in Pinecrest, Fla., Monday, June 26, 2023. Since 2020, the number of different e-cigarette devices for sale in the U.S. has exploded to more than 9,000, a nearly three-fold increase driven almost entirely by a wave of disposable vapes from China. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)</figcaption></figure>

Most of the world’s vaping hardware is manufactured in and around Shenzhen, a manufacturing hub sometimes called “Vape Valley.” Estimates have put Shenzhen’s share of global vaping-device production at roughly 90%.

From there, the products can move through a complicated supply chain involving Chinese exporters, U.S. customs brokers, distributors, and retailers, and oftentimes criminal activities.

Mexican cartels, such as Los Chapitos of the Sinaloa Cartel, have integrated illicit Chinese vapes into their smuggling operations, which often mirror their fentanyl trafficking networks.

Federal officials have also documented efforts to obscure shipments. Last year, the FDA and Customs and Border Protection seized nearly 2 million unauthorized e-cigarettes in Chicago, worth an estimated $33.8 million. The agencies said many shipments used vague product descriptions and incorrect declared values in apparent attempts to evade duties and import scrutiny.

That supply chain is what Richard Marianos, a former ATF official who now works with the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, says investigators need to understand.

“The majority of the products are coming from Shenzhen before moving through illegal distribution networks and into U.S. smoke shops,” Marianos told the Washington Examiner.

He said the issue is not simply that individual stores are selling unauthorized products. It is that the stores can be the final link in a broader criminal network.

“You have to look at the entire distribution network,” Marianos said. “You can’t just look at the vape shop.”

Marianos said law enforcement agencies are encountering other criminal activity at some retailers selling illicit vapes, including narcotics, firearms, large amounts of cash, and suspected money laundering.

“Right now, nationwide, there’s about 15 to 20 crimes occurring every day surrounding this illegal tobacco distribution,” Marianos said. “They’re serious felonies dealing with guns, thousands of dollars in money laundering, and armed robberies.”

He added that the illicit vape market was the “new face of America’s organized crime.”

Marianos pointed to one police chief who told him that a strip mall containing vape shops generated between 15 and 30 calls for service in a month. The calls included complaints about young people purchasing vapes, suspected drug sales, and gunshots.

The Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, of which Marianos serves as executive director, tracks reported crimes at smoke shops through a database. The data is compiled from verified news reports and categorized by crime type. In the last year, the most frequented categories were drug enforcement, with 106 incidents; robbery, with 85 incidents; burglary and theft, with 71 incidents; and homicides, assaults, and shootings, with 51 cases.

Those allegations do not apply to every vape shop. Some retailers sell authorized products to adults and comply with age-verification requirements. The central legal question is whether a product has received FDA authorization, not simply whether it is sold at a store that calls itself a vape shop.

The seizures show why stopping individual retailers may not be enough. New shipments can continue moving through the same network, replacing products that authorities remove from store shelves.

Marianos also contends that some illicit vape routes overlap with other forms of organized crime, including narcotics and money laundering. He said that Chinese-manufactured vape products can travel along routes also used to move drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border.

China’s role in the broader tobacco industry adds another layer to the debate. The country’s tobacco sector is dominated by the state-owned China National Tobacco Corporation, which operates under the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. China prohibits flavored e-cigarettes domestically, while Chinese manufacturers continue flooding overseas markets with flavored products.

The result is a market in which products that cannot legally be sold in the U.S. can still be abundant enough to appear in convenience stores and smoke shops across the country.

For consumers, the distinction is straightforward because a product’s presence on a store shelf does not mean it is legal. The FDA’s authorized-products database is the government’s definitive list of e-cigarettes that may lawfully be marketed and sold in the U.S.

For law enforcement, the problem is more complicated. The investigation begins with a brightly packaged disposable vape but can lead through a supply chain that stretches from a Chinese factory to international freight, American middlemen, and, ultimately, the counter of a neighborhood smoke shop.

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