Mexico’s Vape Ban: How Organized Crime Gained Control of a $1.5 Billion Market

The Cartel’s Takeover Begins

In early 2022, a chilling pattern began emerging across Mexico’s vaping industry that would foreshadow a much larger problem. A vape store owner in northern Mexico received the kind of visit that no business owner wants to experience. Cartel members didn’t arrive with a business proposal or negotiation terms—they came with absolute authority. Two employees were abducted, blindfolded, and used as messengers to deliver an ultimatum to the store’s owners. The message was clear and non-negotiable: the cartel was taking over the business, and the owners would only be permitted to sell products online outside the state. “They don’t come asking whether you want to (give them your business) or not, they come telling you what’s about to happen,” recalls one of the former owners, now 27 and living in the United States under the protective veil of anonymity. This incident wasn’t an isolated occurrence but rather a preview of how Mexico’s approach to vaping regulation would inadvertently create a lucrative opportunity for organized crime. At the time, vaping was still legal in Mexico, supporting a market worth approximately $1.5 billion. What neither the store owners nor legitimate businesses could have predicted was that the government’s heavy-handed approach to regulation would essentially gift-wrap this massive industry and hand it directly to the cartels that already controlled much of the country’s illicit economy.

A Ban That Strengthened Criminal Networks

Earlier this month, Mexico implemented a comprehensive ban on the sale—though notably not the use—of electronic cigarettes. While lawmakers likely envisioned this prohibition as a public health measure, experts in drug policy and organized crime warn that the practical effect will be exactly the opposite of what was intended. Rather than eliminating vaping or protecting public health, the ban is consolidating criminal control over a multi-billion dollar market. “By banning it, you’re handing the market to non-state groups” in a country already struggling with high levels of corruption and violence tied to cartels, explained Zara Snapp, director of the Mexico-based Ría Institute, which specializes in studying drug policy throughout Latin America. The timing and structure of this ban create particularly troubling conditions for Mexico’s security landscape. Alejandro Rosario, a lawyer who has represented numerous vape shops, points out that this prohibition potentially strengthens the cartels by providing them with another revenue stream that won’t attract significant attention from the United States government—primarily because vaping remains completely legal north of the border. This creates an asymmetry where Mexican cartels can operate a lucrative business without triggering the kind of international pressure that accompanies their trafficking of substances that are illegal in both countries. The legislative journey that led to this ban reveals the determination of Mexican authorities to eliminate vaping, even when faced with constitutional obstacles. Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who became an outspoken critic of vaping, initially banned the import and sale of e-cigarettes through executive action. When Mexico’s Supreme Court declared that ban unconstitutional, López Obrador refused to accept defeat. Instead, he pushed for a constitutional amendment that would permanently enshrine the prohibition. That amendment passed in January 2025 under his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum, and it equates electronic cigarettes with fentanyl—the powerful synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. To many legal experts, this equivalency is not only scientifically questionable but represents a dangerous distortion of proportional regulation.

The Legal Confusion and Its Consequences

The implementation of Mexico’s vape ban has been marked by confusion, legal ambiguity, and opportunities for corruption. Initially, the lack of a law to implement the constitutional ban created a significant loophole. Vapes continued flowing into Mexico from China—the world’s primary manufacturer—and from the United States. As recently as December 2024, electronic cigarettes could still be found for sale in many shops throughout Mexico and through online retailers. However, even before the loophole closed, authorities were already conducting raids and seizures. In February 2024, officials confiscated 130,000 electronic cigarettes at the port of Lazaro Cardenas, signaling the government’s serious intent to enforce restrictions however they could. The arbitrary nature of enforcement became evident in individual cases like that of Aldo Martínez, a 39-year-old Mexico City shop owner who was hit with a staggering $38,000 fine for selling the devices. Martínez fought the ruling and eventually avoided payment, but his experience illustrated the uncertain legal landscape that sellers were navigating. In December, that legal limbo ended when authorities closed the loophole with new legislation. The law now prohibits virtually everything about vapes except actual consumption, imposing fines and prison sentences of up to eight years for violations. Martínez immediately stopped selling electronic cigarettes, despite the fact they accounted for two-thirds of his income. “I don’t want to go to jail,” he stated simply. Now Martínez plans to consume his remaining inventory with friends, but he faces a new fear: that corrupt authorities could raid his shop and plant vapes there as a pretext for extortion. This concern isn’t paranoia—it’s based on the reality of how enforcement works in a system with significant corruption. Consumers share similar concerns because while possessing vapes isn’t technically illegal, the new law remains deliberately vague about how many devices can still be considered for personal use versus commercial intent. “If I make a vague law … I give corrupt authorities the ability to interpret it in a way to extort people,” explained Juan José Cirión Lee, a lawyer and president of the collective Mexico and the World Vaping. Cirión Lee plans to challenge the new regulations in court, arguing they are ambiguous and riddled with contradictions that create opportunities for abuse rather than genuine public health protection.

The Cartel Business Model for Vaping

While Mexican lawmakers debated and implemented their vaping ban, organized crime was quietly expanding its control over the sector. The takeover has been most pronounced across northern border states and in the country’s largest cities, including Guadalajara and Mexico City. The cartels have approached the vaping business with the same territorial control and branding strategies they’ve developed through decades of drug trafficking. In some cases, criminal organizations have even marked their vaping products with distinctive stickers or stamps to identify their particular brand—a practice eerily reminiscent of how they stamp their fentanyl pills to distinguish between different cartel sources. Attorney Alejandro Rosario has witnessed firsthand the intimidation, extortion, and violence that forced legitimate sellers in states like Sonora to abandon the business entirely. Some of his former clients in Sinaloa made a different choice: they decided to continue operating, but now selling vapes supplied by the cartel. These sellers were promised they would have no problems with authorities—a guarantee that speaks volumes about the corruption that enables cartel operations. “I have lost about 40% of my clients,” Rosario reported, reflecting the massive disruption organized crime has caused in what was previously a legitimate business sector. The shop owner who lost his business in 2022 and now lives in the United States considers himself comparatively fortunate. The cartel that took over his operation at least paid something for the business and sought the owners’ expertise on how the vaping market worked. However, this “business transaction” was preceded by a chilling demonstration of the cartel’s intelligence capabilities—they already knew everything about the owners, including their home addresses and the names of their relatives. He and his co-owner are now closing their online business because they refuse to choose between working with the cartel and facing prison sentences under the new ban. A longtime seller in Mexico City, who also requested anonymity to protect against reprisals, described how the cartel enforcement extends even to consumers. Some of his clients have been intimidated by thugs for the simple act of buying their vapes online from non-cartel sources, while one of his suppliers sold his entire inventory to organized crime groups rather than risk the consequences of competition. The most attractive products for cartels are the cheapest and most popular devices—disposable vapes. These single-use products have been banned in some countries due to the environmental damage they cause through plastic, electronic, and chemical waste, but they remain the highest-volume segment of the market. According to Rosario, cartels are already positioning themselves as suppliers to what will become formal businesses, with some even purchasing the disposable shells directly from Asian manufacturers to fill themselves with their own vaping liquids. This practice raises alarming questions about product safety and adulteration from organizations that have no qualms about handling all manner of dangerous illicit drugs.

The Evidence of Cartel Involvement

The involvement of Mexico’s major criminal organizations in the vaping market isn’t speculation—it’s documented reality. A recent report by Defensorxs, a Mexican non-governmental organization that monitors criminal activity, confirmed that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel operates “businesses dedicated to repackaging Asian vapes.” This cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations, has expanded beyond traditional drug trafficking into numerous legitimate and semi-legitimate business sectors, and vaping represents their latest diversification. The report also identified involvement from other criminal organizations, including the notorious Sinaloa cartel, historically led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Smaller criminal groups in Mexico City and the resort city of Acapulco have also entered the vape black market, viewing it as a lucrative opportunity with relatively low risk compared to trafficking traditional narcotics. The formal implementation of Mexico’s ban took effect on January 16, 2025, and authorities wasted no time demonstrating their enforcement intentions. The very next day, officials confiscated more than 50,000 vapes and displayed them in a dramatic public exhibition in Mexico City’s central square, the historic Zócalo. Mayor Clara Brugada framed the enforcement operation as necessary to protect young people from the dangers of vaping, presenting the ban as a straightforward public health measure. However, critics of the ban argue that this framing ignores the practical realities of prohibition. For lawyer Cirión Lee, the logic is completely backward. Banned products actually attract youth rather than deterring them, he argues, and now “those selling cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana are selling you vapes”—and unlike legitimate retailers, they don’t check identification or care if the buyer is a minor. By pushing the market underground, Mexico has ensured that the same criminal networks responsible for devastating drug addiction will now control access to vaping products.

The Global Context and Mexico’s Unique Failure

Mexico’s approach to vaping regulation stands in stark contrast to policies in other major markets and reveals important lessons about prohibition versus regulation. Vaping remains legal and regulated in the United States and throughout Europe, where governments have chosen to manage the industry through age restrictions, product standards, marketing limitations, and taxation rather than outright bans. However, Mexico isn’t alone in Latin America in taking the prohibition approach—at least eight countries in the region have now banned electronic cigarettes, reflecting broader cultural and political attitudes toward emerging tobacco alternatives. The results of prohibition have been mixed at best. Brazil banned vapes in 2009, yet electronic cigarettes are now widely used by young people in that country, demonstrating that prohibition without effective enforcement simply creates black markets without achieving public health goals. Interestingly, in the United States, where vapes are not banned but are increasingly regulated, vaping among adolescents actually fell in 2024 to the lowest level in a decade. This suggests that smart regulation may be more effective than prohibition at achieving the goals that motivated Mexico’s ban in the first place. Some countries have successfully integrated vaping into harm reduction strategies. Japan, for example, has used electronic cigarettes as a tool to reduce traditional tobacco use, which causes far more health damage than vaping. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the majority of independent scientists agree that, based on available evidence, electronic cigarettes are significantly less dangerous than conventional cigarettes. This scientific consensus makes Mexico’s equation of vapes with fentanyl seem even more disproportionate and disconnected from evidence-based policy. Zara Snapp, the drug policy researcher, insists that Mexico’s ban represents a genuine setback in public health by removing a safer alternative to cigarettes from the legal market. Smokers who might have transitioned to less harmful vaping will now have to choose between continuing to smoke traditional cigarettes, quitting entirely, or purchasing vapes from criminal organizations with no quality controls or age verification. On the ground, the ban’s implementation has created a climate of uncertainty and fear. Some consumers are asking their trusted suppliers to remain open despite the legal risks, while others are engaging in “panic buying”—purchasing months of supply amid uncertainty about future availability. The young entrepreneur operating near Mexico’s northern border has managed to stay beneath the cartel’s radar so far because he operates without stores or a website, conducting all business through telephone calls and messages with established customers. He’s avoided cartel attention partly because he doesn’t sell disposable vapes, which are the most profitable segment for organized crime. However, he’s under no illusions about his long-term prospects. He plans to be increasingly careful, but he expects that sooner or later, the entire market will be controlled by organized crime. This resignation reflects a broader understanding among those in the industry: Mexico’s vaping ban hasn’t eliminated vaping—it has simply ensured that cartels, rather than legitimate businesses paying taxes and following regulations, will profit from the country’s $1.5 billion market. The story of Mexico’s vaping ban offers important lessons about the limitations of prohibition in contexts where organized crime is powerful and government corruption is widespread, and where the banned substance or product remains legal in neighboring countries with porous borders.