The core of this is anti money laundering and that, in many cases, is not victimless. You also point out that they have limited resources, but try to roll into an argument about how trying to preserve those resources is pointless?

Also, law enforcement isn't exactly a "massive resource" spend when the cost of that should already be baked into yearly country expenses. The only real expenditure is time for investigation. If this really is tied into luxury construction money laundering, we could he talking about hundreds of millions of dollars saved or recovered by only paying the salaries of a few law enforcement officers that will need to work anyway.

Theybhave a 3:1 kill ratio and have stalled the "second best military in the world". Things look quite good for Ukraine rn

Also this brings in taxes which helps both the war effort and society.

I disagree with your entire premise that raids have anything to do with demand on an addictive product.

See all illegal substances, and their demand across the board - so much demand that people risk fines and imprisonment to deliver these items.

I honestly don't understand how you can purport to know the cost-benefit ratio of police salaries, nicotine vape sales, and the tax revenue they generate; it seems like you're talking out of your hind quarters.

Again, I think you missed a few words in the article. It's an article about black market nicotine and the issues most countries have with controlling substances that are regulated.

Careful online though! With your interpretation of this news article, it seems you might easily be swayed by heavily biased or misleading information sources. Here is a good explainer of how to spot such things: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20250227STO27081/spotting-disinformation-six-tactics-used-to-fool-us