FILE – In this Aug. 28, 2019, file photo, a man exhales while smoking an e-cigarette in Portland, Maine. Health officials investigating a nationwide outbreak of vaping-related illnesses have, for the first time, listed the vape brands that are most commonly linked to hospitalizations. Most of the nearly 2,300 people who has suffered lung damage were vaping liquids that contain THC, the high-inducing part of marijuana. In a report released Friday, Dec. 6 the government listed the THC-containing products that patients most often said they’d been using, noting that some patients vaped more than one. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
LIVERMORE – Alameda County prosecutors are taking aim at a Livermore-based company they claim is illegally selling flavored tobacco products to children and manufacturing illegal synthetic cannabis products.
A lawsuit filed by the district attorney’s office seeks to shutdown Apollo Future Technology, which does business as Apollo E-cigs, prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday.
The company, prosecutors said, “poses a grave threat to the children of Alameda County.”
On Friday, the district attorney’s office obtained a temporary restraining order that bars Apollo from selling flavored tobacco products or synthetic cannabis products locally and online pending the resolution of a preliminary injunction hearing on Sept. 21.
The suit alleges the company uses its Livermore warehouse to sell banned flavored tobacco products – predominately “vapes” and “vape juice” – to individuals under the age of 21, according to the statement.
In addition, prosecutors contend Apollo sold products through its website without verifying the purchasers’ ages as required by state law, illegally shipped its flavored tobacco products through the U.S. Postal Service, and manufactured and sold thousands of synthetic cannabis products in packaging that falsely claimed they were legal, natural industrial hemp products containing less than 0.3 percent THC.
The suit stemmed from a multi-agency investigation conducted by the district attorney’s office, the Livermore Police Department, the state Department of Public Health and the state Department of Tax and Fee Administration, according to the statement.
The district attorney’s office is scheduled to hold a news conference on the lawsuit at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Originally published at Jason Green