Thousands of vapes seized in Melbourne raid as police send ‘clear message’ to stores

The Melbourne raid follows a crackdown in South Australia, where 1,200 vapes suspected of containing nicotine were removed from shelves of stores in July. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

More than 25,000 allegedly illegal vapes have been seized in a police raid on a store in central Melbourne in a crackdown aimed at sending a “clear message” to other shops.

But public health experts say that without tighter border controls, stores will continue to trade illegal nicotine vape products aimed at teenagers.