U.S. Marshals and other federal agents, including from the Food and Drug Administration, raided a facility in Bensenville, Illinois, Wednesday morning, that distributes vaping products.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Midwest Goods, Inc. facility on Foster Avenue in the west suburb was one of several facilities raided across the country at the same time today for distributing flavored vaping products.
“It’s clear many of these products are being illegally brought into America. They’re targeting children, young adults, college students, and even members of our military,” Bondi said.
Federal agents could be seen going in and out of the facility starting around 8 a.m. About two hours later, agents started setting up tables outside the facility displaying the good seized.
Bondi said the products are made in China and marketed to children.
“Parents, talk to your children. These things seized right here today, watermelon ice, hm targeting a child, also an American flag on it. Don’t let the American flag fool you. It’s Chinese,” she said.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was also at the Bensenville facility, said the FDA made purchases in several states with the ATF involving distributors and retailers. Kennedy said at Midwest Goods, 50 truckloads of material was seized. He said 90% of it came from China.
“They’re making products there that they believe are so dangerous they can’t sell to their own citizens. And they’re dumping them here in our country, and the Chinese are getting richer while our children get sicker,” Kennedy said.
Midwest Good released a statement on what they called a “civil seizure action,” saying it was conducted by agents from the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Marshals.
According to the company, the majority of items seized were bottles of nicotine e-liquid for refillable e-cigarettes and vape devices made by 75 different brands. Midwest Goods said the products have had applications pending with the FDA for years, and the agency has previous allowed most, if not all, of these products to be marked and sold while the premarket applications are pending.
The company said after an August inspection, they removed some items from their catalogue and offered to stop selling others, but while the FDA acknowledged receiving the communication, they did not request they stop selling any other products. The company said that was the last correspondence they had before this raid.
“We find the FDA’s actions particularly troubling given reports earlier this week that FDA plans to expedite within a matter of months reviews of several tobacco products manufactured by Big Tobacco companies, including, to our understanding, products with applications submitted years after some of the products FDA is seizing from our warehouse,” the company said in a statement.
Midwest Goods said it is fully cooperating with federal agents at their Bensenville warehouse.
“Midwest intends to continue to cooperate with federal authorities and, if necessary, to vindicate our rights in court,” they wrote.
They also said the vast majority of the products listed on the federal government’s warrant are “manufactured by U.S. companies here in the United States that employ hundreds if not thousands of U.S. workers.”
Midwest Goods is a wholesale business to business distributor of vape electronic cigarette supplies, as well as smoke shop, headshop and dispensary supplies in the U.S. They distribute products including disposable e-cigarettes, vaping liquid, vape modifications, pod systems and more. They also distribute paraphernalia, including pipes, bongs, vaporizers, rolling papers, hookahs, torches and lighters.
Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, said the national trade association represents the independent vaping industry in the U.S.
“The FDA needs to reverse course and fix the regulation that has led to the mess that we are in today,” he said. “This is the opposite of President Trump’s America First agenda. This is going after American small businesses seizing 100 percent American made product and in the process will cost the Trump administration $20 billion in taxes over this term.”
Right now, Midwest Goods has two active cases in New York federal court in which the distributor is accused of persistently and illegally marketing, selling and shipping flavored vaping products to New York.
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