Federal agents raided a vaping products distributor in a west suburb over alleged ties to “illegal and unregulated products,” representing the largest seizure in a multistate effort, federal officials announced Wednesday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a news conference outside of the distributor, Midwest Goods, in Bensenville on Wednesday to announce that they allegedly seized more than 600,000 illegal products, including various flavored vapes, such as watermelon and pina colada.
Bondi said federal agents — from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service — also seized products from distributors and retailers in North Carolina, Arizona, New Jersey, Georgia and Florida.
The Bensenville raid was the largest nationwide, she announced, while standing in front of products allegedly taken from the warehouse. There have been no arrests, she said.
“Let this be a clear message to the retailers and the distributors pushing these illicit vaping products on our kids and on our families. This ends today. This is your final warning,” Bondi said. “The Department of Justice will use every legal tool available to stop the distribution of illegal vaping products in America.
Tony Abboud, executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, sharply criticized the raid, saying the FDA is “seizing products from American companies that have complied with regulations.” He said it’s the “opposite of President Trump’s America First agenda” and that it will hurt small businesses.
U.S. Marshals Service employees pack up a display of vaping products after Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a news conference, Sept. 10, 2025, about a raid at a Midwest Distribution warehouse in Bensenville. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
“We’re talking about 150,000 businesses in this country that support the independent vaping industry, that involves more than 90,000 jobs and over $5 billion in tax revenue,” Abboud said from Bensenville, while calling on the FDA to limit “regulatory limbo” for vape companies.
Midwest Goods said in a statement that they are “fully cooperating with the authorities as they conduct this court-authorized activity.” The company said they have “always attempted to work cooperatively” with the FDA, including after an inspection in August where they offered to remove “products from our product catalog if (the) FDA was concerned.”
They also said most of the products listed on the warrant are bottled e-liquids with “premarket tobacco product applications” pending at the FDA and that they are manufactured by U.S. companies that “employ hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. workers.”
“FDA has allowed most, if not all, of these products to be marketed and sold while these premarket applications remain pending,” the statement said. “It is the availability of these less harmful products that have pushed U.S. cigarette smoking rates to record lows.”
Wednesday’s activity marks the latest attempt by law enforcement to stop the flow of unauthorized vapes that have flooded into the U.S. with kid-friendly flavors, often from China.
The FDA has rejected applications for more than 1 million nicotine products formulated to taste like fruit, dessert or candy because their makers couldn’t show that flavored vapes had a net public benefit. In 2020, the city of Chicago banned flavored vaping products that appeal to teens.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court sided with the FDA in a ruling upholding a sweeping block on most sweet-flavored vapes instituted after a spike in youth vaping. Use has declined in recent years, however, with fewer adolescents reported vaping in 2024 than at any point in the last decade, a downward trend officials have attributed to more aggressive enforcement.
A display of vaping products remains after Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a news conference, Sept. 10, 2025, about a U.S. Marshals Service raid at a Midwest Distribution warehouse in Bensenville. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Kennedy said at the news conference that products from China have “flooded the market” and that few have FDA approval. He said agents confiscated 50 truckloads on Wednesday, most of which were from China.
“The Chinese are getting richer while our kids get sicker,” Kennedy said. “We are going to target these Chinese vapes and stop them from poisoning our children.”
Abboud, director of the trade group, acknowledged that some products seized Wednesday were made in China, because “all devices are made in China, including the devices that the FDA has already approved for being on the market.”
“They are selectively choosing which Chinese-made products to go after,” Abboud said. “But more importantly, today is the first time they have launched an assault on the American independent e-liquid industry.”
The Associated Press contributed.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/10/vaping-products-seized-outside-chicago/
