After Mexico bans vapes, cartels tighten their grip on a booming market

In a brazen show of force, Mexican drug cartels are rapidly seizing control of the country’s vaping market following a controversial ban that critics say plays directly into the hands of organized crime.

When cartel members approached a vape shop in northern Mexico in early 2022, they didn’t negotiate. They abducted two employees, blindfolded them, and demanded to speak with the owners. Their message was clear: the cartel was taking over.

“They don’t come asking whether you want to [give them your business] or not, they come telling you what’s about to happen,” said one of the shop’s owners, now 27 and living in the United States. Speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal, he recounted how the cartel allowed them to continue online sales outside the state, but physical retail operations were now under cartel control.

This occurred when vapes were still legal in Mexico, in a market valued at approximately $1.5 billion. Earlier this month, Mexico officially banned the sale—though not the consumption—of electronic cigarettes, a move experts believe will only strengthen cartel control over the industry.

“By banning it, you’re handing the market to non-state groups,” said Zara Snapp, director of the Mexico-based Ría Institute, which studies drug policy in Latin America. In a country already plagued by corruption and cartel violence, the prohibition creates yet another lucrative revenue stream for criminal organizations.

The ban potentially strengthens cartels by providing them with additional income from a product that remains low on U.S. law enforcement priorities, since vaping products are legal in the United States, according to Alejandro Rosario, a lawyer representing numerous vape shops affected by the new legislation.

While vaping is regulated but legal in the U.S. and Europe, Mexico joins at least eight other Latin American countries that have implemented bans. The World Health Organization has supported increased regulation, citing concerns about rising use among teenagers. Some nations, like Japan, have embraced e-cigarettes as part of harm reduction strategies to decrease traditional tobacco use.

Mexico’s path to prohibition began under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, an outspoken critic of vaping who banned the import and sale of e-cigarettes. When Mexico’s Supreme Court declared that ban unconstitutional, López Obrador pushed for a constitutional amendment, which passed in January 2025 under his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum.

The amendment controversially placed electronic cigarettes in the same category as the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, a comparison many legal experts consider grossly disproportionate.

For months, a legal loophole allowed vaping products to continue entering Mexico from China—the world’s primary producer—and the United States. Despite authorities conducting raids and seizing products, vapes remained widely available in shops and online throughout much of 2023.

In December, lawmakers closed this loophole. A new law now prohibits virtually all aspects of the vaping industry except consumption itself, with penalties including fines and prison sentences of up to eight years.

Aldo Martínez, a 39-year-old Mexico City shop owner, immediately ceased selling e-cigarettes, despite them representing two-thirds of his income. “I don’t want to go to jail,” he said. Having previously fought a $38,000 fine for selling the devices, Martínez now fears authorities might plant vaping products in his shop to extort him.

Consumers also worry about potential extortion since the law is unclear regarding how many devices constitute “personal use” versus intent to distribute.

“If I make a vague law… I give corrupt authorities the ability to interpret it in a way to extort people,” said Juan José Cirión Lee, a lawyer and president of the advocacy group Mexico and the World Vaping. He plans to challenge the regulations in court, arguing they are ambiguous and contradictory.

While the legal battle was unfolding, organized crime groups methodically expanded their share of the vaping sector across northern Mexico and major cities like Guadalajara and Mexico City. Some cartels even branded their products with distinctive stickers or stamps—reminiscent of their marked fentanyl pills—to distinguish their “brand” in the market.

Rosario described patterns of intimidation, extortion, and violence that forced sellers in states like Sonora to abandon their businesses. Others, including some of his former clients in Sinaloa, reluctantly agreed to sell cartel-supplied vapes after being promised protection from authorities.

“I have lost about 40% of my clients,” Rosario noted.

The shop owner now in the U.S. considers himself fortunate—the cartel that seized his business actually paid something for it and sought his expertise on operations. The cartel had already gathered extensive information about the owners, including home addresses and names of family members.

Disposable vapes—the cheapest and most popular devices—have become the primary target for cartels. These products, banned in some countries due to their plastic, electronic, and chemical waste, offer criminal organizations the highest profit margins with minimal investment.

According to a recent report by the Mexican NGO Defensorxs, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has established “businesses dedicated to repackaging Asian vapes,” while other criminal groups, including the Sinaloa cartel, have secured their own positions in the black market.

Some cartels are now purchasing empty disposable vape shells directly from Asian manufacturers, filling them locally—a practice that raises serious concerns about potentially adulterated products from organizations already handling illicit drugs.

The day after Mexico’s ban took effect on January 16, authorities confiscated more than 50,000 vapes in a public display in Mexico City’s central square. Mayor Clara Brugada framed the enforcement as necessary for protecting young people.

Cirión Lee finds this argument absurd, noting that prohibited products often become more attractive to youth. “Now those selling cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana are selling you vapes,” he said, adding that illegal vendors have no incentive to verify a customer’s age.

Experiences with vaping bans in other countries have produced mixed results. Brazil prohibited e-cigarettes in 2009, yet they remain widely used among young people. In the U.S., where regulatory oversight has increased without outright prohibition, vaping among adolescents fell in 2023 to the lowest level in a decade.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and most scientists agree that, based on available evidence, electronic cigarettes are significantly less harmful than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

As Mexico’s new reality settles in, consumers are making “panic buys” to stockpile months of supplies, while some smaller entrepreneurs attempt to operate beneath the radar. One young businessman near Mexico’s northern border continues to sell non-disposable vapes exclusively through phone calls and messages, avoiding stores or websites that might attract attention.

So far, he claims cartels have left him alone because he doesn’t sell the disposable products they prefer, but he’s preparing to be more careful. “Sooner or later,” he predicts, “the whole market will be in the hands of organized crime.”