http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/society/Police-bust-gang-which-made-illegal-tobaccomaking-machines/shdaily.shtml
SHANGHAI police have busted a seven-member gang which produced and sold illegal tobacco machines nationwide, Shanghai Television reported yesterday.
In China, tobacco production and sales are strictly under state control.
In May, local police were tipped off about a suspect surnamed Zhai in Jiading District.
Over the next two months, police discovered that Zhai and other gang members had an assembly of tobacco-making machines and sold them to other provinces like Fujian, Liaoning and Guangdong.
Police eventually busted the gang on July 12 in Shanghai and Fujian Province and seized 19 tobacco machines.
According to police, the gang had been running the business since October 2014. They bought the machine parts from other places and hired people to assemble them in Jiading. These machines were sold at prices ranging between 250,000 yuan to 400,000 yuan.
A machine of this kind can produce 2,000 cigarettes a minute. In a year, it can produce cigarettes with a value of 10 million yuan.