Three young people used their fingers on social media to connect with their families and sell counterfeit electronic cigarettes nationwide through express delivery, earning high profits. In May 2024, senior high school student Chen Moujie dropped out of school due to poor grades. Afterwards, he earned money by doing odd jobs everywhere. One day while scrolling through short videos, Chen Mujie was attracted by an electronic cigarette advertisement that featured "rich flavors" and "trendy fashion". Seeing the comments in the comment section about "seeking goods" and "how to buy", Chen Mujie, who was thinking about how to "get rich quickly", had a thought: this may be an opportunity. With a trial and error mentality, Chen Mujie purchased a batch of electronic cigarettes and sold them online. Surprisingly, these uniquely flavored and innovative electronic cigarettes sell very well and generate considerable profits. Chen Mujie, who easily made money, was excited and had a bolder idea: he wanted to be a boss, not a vendor. In order to expand the scale, Chen Mujie thought of his cousin Chen Mujian, who had some savings (to be handled separately). Chen Mujie described the vast "money market" of this business to his cousin, and the two of them hit it off immediately, deciding to run it as a partnership. Chen Mujian is responsible for investing in rental housing, providing payment accounts, and managing finances, while Chen Mujie is responsible for core business - searching for counterfeit electronic cigarette sources and buyers through the internet. As the business grew bigger and bigger, Chen Moujie felt that the cost of hoarding goods was too high and the risk was also high. In addition to the sales model of hoarding, receiving orders, and packaging and shipping, Chen Mujie has also explored a set of "intermediary agency" sales models, in which he acts as an intermediary himself, contacts buyers, and directly lets manufacturers ship on behalf of him, earning the price difference. This light asset model has fast turnover, and Chen Mujie's business volume has begun to soar. With the surge in order volume, there are also more and more miscellaneous tasks such as packaging, shipping, and contacting customers. Chen Mujie invited his friend Xu Mouli to join him under the pretext of "doing business together to make money". Xu Mouli is mainly responsible for finding agents and scattered customers online, as well as auxiliary work such as packaging and delivering goods. The three people moved around in many cities and counties in Fujian Province, frequently changing their rental places and warehouses, and quietly bought and sold fake electronic cigarettes by using Kwai, Tiktok, WeChat and other software. On August 20, 2024, the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau of Yangxin County discovered during work that Yin (handled separately) in the jurisdiction had purchased a batch of illegal electronic cigarette products from the internet, and then handed over the clue to the Yangxin County Public Security Bureau. During the investigation, the Yangxin County Public Security Bureau found that the illegal electronic cigarettes purchased by Yin from the internet were issued by Chen and Xu, who reside in Fujian Province. On August 30, 2024, in an apartment in a district of Fuzhou, the public security organs arrested Chen Mujie, Xu Mouli and others, and seized more than 1400 counterfeit electronic cigarettes on site. On December 30th of the same year, the Yangxin County Public Security Bureau transferred the case to the County Procuratorate for examination and prosecution. The Yangxin County People's Procuratorate investigated and found that from June to August 2024, Chen Moujie, together with Chen Moujian, invited Xu Mouli to seek illegal interests. Without the tobacco business license, he searched for the source of fake and inferior electronic cigarettes, intermediary agents and retail customers through Kwai, Tiktok and other platforms, and illegally bought and sold fake and inferior electronic cigarettes by using the sales model of hoarding spontaneous or intermediary contact transactions to earn the price difference. During this period, the three individuals collected a total of 345888 yuan and 140 USDT (stablecoins, virtual currencies), equivalent to over 380000 yuan in Chinese yuan. 1431 electronic cigarettes worth 17172 yuan were seized on site. Based on the confirmed facts, the Yangxin County Procuratorate believes that Chen and Xu, together with others, violated the national laws and regulations on tobacco monopoly management, illegally operated tobacco monopoly products without permission, and the circumstances were particularly serious. Chen Moujie mentioned criminal intent and was responsible for core business, making him the main culprit. Xu was recruited to participate in auxiliary work and did not participate in the core process of dividing the spoils. He played a secondary role in the joint crime and can be recognized as an accomplice according to law. On February 14th of this year, the Yangxin County Procuratorate prosecuted Chen Mujie and Xu Mouli for illegal business operations. On September 28th, after trial, the court fully adopted the prosecution's charges and sentencing recommendations, sentencing the defendant Chen Moujie to five years and six months in prison for illegal business operations and imposing a fine of 20000 yuan; The defendant Xu was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and fined 10000 yuan. In November of this year, the Procuratorate of Yangxin County, Hubei Province, took the handling of this case as an opportunity to hold a symposium with the Tobacco Bureau and other departments to negotiate on regulating the healthy development of the tobacco industry. (New Society)