Customs anti-smuggling officers count the seized IQOS e-cigarettes.

According to Urumqi Customs statistics, from January to October, the Customs’ Anti-Smuggling Bureau handled a total of 336 cases of IQOS e-cigarette smuggling, including 7 criminal cases and 329 administrative cases, and seized over 13,000 cartons of IQOS e-cigarettes, worth 6.2 million Yuan.

The IQOS e-cigarette, a new type of tobacco products, is a state-controlled commodity in China and is often smuggled inward by concealment in body, luggage or vehicle. Urumqi Customs has listed the anti-smuggling on new tobacco products into specific “Nation-Gate Sword 2018” campaign. Besides intensive control on entry and exit, the Customs also promotes multi-agencies anti-smuggling co-governance; for example, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Xinjiang Tobacco Monopoly Administration for joint operation against new tobacco products and keeps collaborating with local Public Security Bureau and Post Bureau to crack down on tobacco smuggling in such channels as marketing and logistics.