President Donald Trump walks to Air Force One at Morristown Airport on Sept. 14, 2025, in Morristown, New Jersey. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Over the past 8 months, the administration has vowed to combat the problem of illicit Chinese vapes and choke off the supply chain at the borders and ports after critics in the industry hammered the Biden administration for not doing enough to combat the issue.
Those promises appear to be taking shape at the federal and local level including news of a federal raid earlier this month in Illinois where CBS News reported federal agents seized flavored vaping products.
"The Chinese are getting richer while our children get sicker," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on X at the time. "We’re putting an end to that."
"We are targeting illegal Chinese vapes and we will stop them from poisoning our children. Just last week, I stood with @AGPamBondi after law enforcement seized 50 truckloads of illegal vapes from a Chicago-area warehouse — 90% of them from China."
Person smoking a nicotine vape while wearing headphones. (iStock)
In Louisiana, Operation "Vape Out" has resulted in 34,000 illegal vapes being seized and at least 10 arrests while Operation "Smoke Signals" in Florida has yielded at least 27 arrests across 20 vape stores.
Edgar Domenech, former deputy director and COO of the DOJ’s Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Explosives and a strategic advisor for the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital "this is more than unauthorized tobacco smuggling."
"Federal state and local law enforcement leadership is starting to recognize that these are sophisticated criminal networks trading Chinese vapes alongside hard drugs and guns while they launder profits and evade taxes to cover it all up," Domenech said. "We need an all-of-government approach to break this monster’s back once and for all."
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-admins-crackdown-illicit-chinese-vapes-us-scores-major-wins-emerging-threat