Website leads cops to e-cigarettes warehouse, 18 held in raid

Noida: In its biggest raid against e-cigarettes in the district so far, a joint team of police, administration and the health department raided a warehouse and assembly unit of electronic nicotine-based products and arrested 18 employees in Sector 65 on Monday. Several boxes of raw materials, e-cigarettes (also known as vapes) and other products worth around Rs 50 lakh were seized, said officials. The drive took place after officials received complaints from principals of various schools regarding increasing use of e-cigarettes in students. “These are extremely dangerous products. We have conducted raids all through last week before schools reopen after the summer break,” said B N Singh, district magistrate.
Some schools also said that students as small as from Class 7 were found to be carrying e-cigarettes. They are banned in Uttar Pradesh under the Drug Control Act.
After conducting raids at shops and checking availability of vaping devices online, officials zeroed down on one website that seemed to be supplying products in Noida and other cities across the country. “We checked the website of Lovelite Vapes and sought help from police on tracking the address. The employees initially claimed to be working for an IT company, but were found to be assembling and selling e-cigarettes, e-liquids (nicotine in liquid form) and other similar products,” said Shailendra Mishra, city magistrate.
Police, however, said that the products were produced in Delhi and assembled in Noida. “We have come to know that these products were being obtained from Delhi, but we need to investigate further. The Lovelite employees are being detained under Section 151 (preventive custody) of the CrPC as of now,” SSP Vaibhav Krishna said.
In the past 10 days, the administration has conducted two raids and sealed nine e-cigarette shops. “These devices use nicotine-induced liquid that turns to vapour. Even if a small quantity of opiates is mixed, it quickly becomes addictive. These devices are as bad as cigarettes and can be very harmful, especially for children. The samples collected will be sent to the National Tobacco Control Cell in Delhi to check nicotine content,” said Dr Sunil Dohare, who heads the tobacco control cell, Gautam Budh Nagar.