Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S biggest-ever seizure of illegal vaping units has taken place on an Alicante province industrial estate with 8,615 vapes confiscated along with associated charging units.
Elche’s Policia Local heard about sales of vapes in the area that did not meet minimum health requirements with the items being targeted at children.
Inquiries focused on the units being distributed from three wholesale warehouses on the Faima Industrial Estate in Crevillente with concerns that mass distribution was going to happen ahead of the major Elche fiestas.
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Six police patrols coordinated a surprise inspection of the warehouses on Tuesday and discovered large quantities of the vapes, some of which were in the trunk of a vehicle belonging to one of the men behind the criminal enterprise.
Officers spent several hours turning over the warehouses and added four more to their list of visits.
The vapes did not have appropriate labelling including legal warnings over using them and the fact that they posed a health risk.
The retail value of the seized products amounted to around €130,000, overhauling a Malaga area operation in March where 8,500 vapes were impounded.
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In this way, members of said unit began to gather information on the vendors, means of distribution and origin of these items, resulting in the location of three industrial warehouses in the Faima Industrial Estate in Crevillente, dedicated to wholesale . In response to the proliferation in establishments of this type of items for sale to minors and presuming their imminent sale during the patron saint festivities, the agents accelerated the intervention by adding the members of the Elche Autonomous Police to the operation to establish a joint intervention. Finally, this was carried out on August 8, involving six patrols that coordinated a quick inspection of the ships and intervention of the merchandise handled, finding some of them still in the trunk of the vehicle of one of the holders of the activity. The intervention covered both the sales area and the large storage areas of the three initial warehouses for several hours, expanding to four more in the immediate vicinity, immobilizing 8,615 electronic inhalation systems and disposable vaping charges. All presented irregularities in the labeling and in the legal warnings for their consumption, classified as harmful to people’s health.
This operation becomes the most important that has been carried out in Spain so far, based on the volume of the confiscated merchandise and the fact that, due to the presentation and falsification of the labeling, the nicotine vapers were ready for distribution. among minors, presumably, taking advantage of the pull of Elche’s festivities. It is estimated that the sale value of the products would amount to 130,000 euros, highlighting that this action exceeds that carried out in Malaga in the month of March, where 8,500 vapers were intervened. In this way, it has been possible to avoid the indiscriminate commercialization
of products harmful to health, as well as illegal, which could lead to addictive behavior by minors.
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