WASHINGTON — U.S. agents recently seized more than 1.4 million illegal e-cigarettes from the Chinese manufacturer behind Elf Bar, a line of fruity disposable vapes that has become the top brand among American teens, officials said Thursday.
Officials estimated the value of the e-cigarettes seized at Los Angeles International Airport at $18 million and said they contained several related brands, including Lost Mary, Funky Republic and EB Create, according to a statement from the Food and Drug Administration. The agency announced the seizure to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which helped carry out the operation.
Many of the containers were deliberately mislabeled as toys, shoes and other household items to avoid customs, authorities said. FDA records show that regulators on Nov. 6 intercepted the shipment from iMiracle Shenzhen, a manufacturer of Elf Bar and other disposable electronic cigarettes.
It's the first time authorities have reported successfully preventing the company from bringing its vapes into the US, where it has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales since late 2021. In May, the FDA ordered customs officials to seize shipments of iMiracle and several others. Other companies.
The seized products will be destroyed, the FDA said.
“Those who are brazenly trying to smuggle illegal e-cigarettes, especially those that appeal to youth, into this country should heed today's announcement,” Brian King, the FDA's tobacco chief, said in a statement.
Elf Bar is the most visible of thousands of brands of cheap, disposable e-cigarettes that have flooded into the US from China in recent years. The products come in flavors like strawberry melon and triple berry ice cream and claim to contain 5,000 “puffs” per device. After the FDA imposed an import ban on some of its products, iMiracle was rebranded under several new product names, including EB Design.
The products remain widely available in convenience stores and vape shops across the US
In the latest government survey, 56% of teens who vaped said they used Elf Bar, more than double the rate of any other brand of e-cigarettes, according to federal figures.
A spokesperson for iMiracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
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