After seizing any original packages of cigarettes, or cigarette vending devices, as provided in Section 18 of this Act, the Department shall hold a hearing and shall determine whether such original packages of cigarettes, at the time of their seizure by the Department, were contraband cigarettes, or whether such cigarette vending devices, at the time of their seizure by the Department, contained original packages of contraband cigarettes

Sec. 18a. After seizing any original packages of cigarettes, or cigarette vending devices, as provided in Section 18 of this Act, the Department shall hold a hearing and shall determine whether such original packages of cigarettes, at the time of their seizure by the Department, were contraband cigarettes, or whether such cigarette vending devices, at the time of their seizure by the Department, contained original packages of contraband cigarettes. The Department is not required to hold such a hearing if a waiver and consent to forfeiture has been executed by the owner of the property, if the owner is known, and by the person in whose possession the property so taken was found, if that person is known and if that person is not the owner of the property. The Department shall give not less than 7 days' notice of the time and place of such hearing to the owner of such property if the owner is known, and also to the person in whose possession the property so taken was found, if such person is known and if such person in possession is not the owner of said property. In case neither the owner nor the person in possession of such property is known, the Department shall cause publication of the time and place of such hearing to be made at least once in each week for 3 weeks successively in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where such hearing is to be held. If, as the result of such hearing, the Department shall determine that the original packages of cigarettes seized were at the time of seizure contraband cigarettes, or that any cigarette vending device at the time of its seizure contained original packages of contraband cigarettes, or upon receipt of a properly executed waiver and consent to forfeiture as provided in this Section, the Department shall enter an order declaring such original packages of cigarettes or such cigarette vending devices confiscated and forfeited to the State, and to be held by the Department for disposal by it as provided in Section 21 of this Act. The Department shall give notice of such order to the owner of such property if the owner is known, and also to the person in whose possession the property so taken was found, if such person is known and if such person in possession is not the owner of said property. In case neither the owner nor the person in possession of such property is known, the Department shall cause publication of such order to be made at least once in each week for 3 weeks successively in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where such hearing was held. (Source: P.A. 103-1001, eff. 8-9-24.)