At least five Richmond-area vape shops raided as industry comes under scrutiny nationally

At least five Richmond vape shops have been raided this week in operations involving police from the city as well as Henrico and Chesterfield counties. 

On Friday morning, police executed search warrants at vape shops in the 1800 block of Fairmount Avenue and the 3000 and 3900 blocks of Hull Street Road. 

Those operations followed raids Tuesday at shops in the 1500 block of West Broad Street and the 2500 block of West Main Street. Video footage and photos indicate both of those stores were branded as Vape Stop locations. 

According to Richmond Police Department spokesperson James Mercante, city police assisted the Chesterfield County Police Department in the Tuesday operations and the Henrico County Police Division in the Friday raids. 

Chesterfield Police spokesperson Elizabeth Caroon told The Richmonder Friday that the West Broad Street raid “was one of several executed at businesses and residences as part of this investigation.”  

Despite reports that an improvised explosive device had been found in one of the Tuesday searches, Caroon said Friday that “no explosive device was found or recovered.” 

“Additional information is not available at this time as this is an ongoing investigation,” she wrote in an email. 

Other raids also appear to have occurred Friday: Henrico Police spokesperson Karina Bolster said detectives within that force executed search warrants “at businesses of this nature in Henrico County.” However, she declined to provide addresses, saying that “due to the sensitive nature of this case and others, we are unable to provide any further details to our active investigations.” 

National focus on vape stores

The local operations come amid a wider national crackdown on vape stores that has focused on both illegal vaping products and other illegal activities being carried out behind closed doors at the shops. 

On Sept. 10, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Department of Justice had carried out raids across six states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey and North Carolina — that recovered hundreds of thousands of illegal vaping products. 

This Thursday, the department announced it had seized more than 2 million unauthorized vaping products and had filed injunctions against 11 distributors and retailers. 

Richmond officials have also shown concern about the proliferation of vape shops across the city in recent years. This July, City Council passed an ordinance that would ban new vape and tobacco shops from being built in much of the city, although it would not affect those that are already operating. 

The Richmonder reached out to multiple local vape shops on Friday, but all declined comment or did not immediately return messages.

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org. Michael Phillips contributed to this report.