BENSENVILLE, Ill. — Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were in the Chicago area Wednesday to announce joint seizure operations of illicit vaping sales — a move that comes as the White House has been threatening to send the military into the city.
The operation, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Food and Drug Administration, was executed across six states Wednesday morning and targeted five distributors and nine retailers with civil enforcement action.
Bondi and Kennedy were both present at the site of the largest seizure in Bensenville, Illinois, where 600,000 units of illegal product were seized.
The Department of Justice targeted the distributors and retailers to halt their alleged sale of certain vaping products, including illegally flavored vapes, THC-infused vapes and products containing 7-OH, an illegal compound with opioid-like effects derived from kratom plants.
The ATF, in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service, carried out the raids in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey and North Carolina.
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on the sale of flavored vapes not approved by the FDA. The agency has said these types of vapes pose a health risk because they could encourage young people to use tobacco.
In August, Bondi directed the ATF to move forward with a planned operation after Kennedy identified illicit vaping products shipped into the U.S. from China as a priority for the Health Department.
"It's clear many of these products are being illegally brought into America. They're targeting children, young adults, college students and even members of our military," Bondi said at a news conference Wednesday.
"These illegal and unregulated products are not safe," she added, and "Chinese companies are making millions off these products."
"The Department of Justice will use every legal measure to stop" the sales, she said.
Kennedy said the packaging of some of the products from China was "designed to attract young people" — and that such products are banned in China.
The presence of two Cabinet secretaries at such an operation is unusual, and it took place two days after the Department of Homeland Security announced Immigration and Customs Enforcement was launching "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago, targeting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.
The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened in recent weeks to send in the National Guard to combat high crime in the city.
Asked about crime in the city, Bondi said, "Chicago is very violent. We have a government here that does not want to cooperate with President Trump," she added.
In a post on Truth Social last week, President Donald Trump wrote, “Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far.”
On Saturday, he posted what appeared to be an AI-created image of himself in front of the Chicago skyline with helicopters, flames and the phrase “Chipocalypse Now.”
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning...’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the post read.
He's also delivered mixed messaging. In a radio interview last week, when asked in a radio interview whether he was going to deploy the National Guard in the city, he said, "I don’t want to mention when, but it’s going to be happening there." But at other points, he's said he'd send them in if asked to do so by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, say the move is neither wanted or needed.
“The president’s absurd characterizations do not match what is happening on the ground here. He has no idea what he’s talking about,” Pritzker told reporters last week. “There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops," he said.
Both Pritzker and Johnson have criticized the administration for slashing public safety funding, including canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in grants.
Statistics show crime has been down in various cities, including Chicago. The most recent statistics, show homicides have dropped 31% from last year, while shootings were down 37.4%.
