News Release — Targeting Sale of Alcohol and Vape Products to Underage Persons

WARREN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

200 SKYLINE VISTA DRIVE · FRONT ROYAL, VIRGINIA 22630

Mark A. But­ler, Sher­iff

NEWS RELEASE

The Sheriff’s Office tar­gets the sale of alco­hol and Vape prod­ucts to under­age per­sons.

Since our schools and busi­ness­es have emerged from under the cloud of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic restric­tions, the Sheriff’s Office has received com­plaints from res­i­dents about the dan­gers of area busi­ness­es sell­ing tobac­co, Vap­ing, and alco­holic bev­er­ages to under­age per­sons. The Sheriff’s Office part­nered with the War­ren Coali­tion to con­duct focused enforce­ment of the state and coun­ty codes relat­ed to these concerns.

Two sep­a­rate com­pli­ance checks were con­duct­ed on March 21st and March 23rd, 2022 where deputies from the School Resource Divi­sion coor­di­nat­ed the plain clothes oper­a­tions with the aid of a reli­able and trust­ed young adult. WCSO Deputies A. Ulibar­ri, C. Wig­ing­ton, H. Moli­na, O. Fuentes, W. Atwood, led by Sergeant C. Burke con­duct­ed the com­pli­ance checks at twelve local busi­ness­es dur­ing the two days, with only three of the busi­ness­es pass­ing by prop­er­ly check­ing the customer’s state iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and dis­al­low­ing the sale. These busi­ness­es were thanked for their dili­gence and prop­er adher­ence to the sales of prod­ucts not approved for our youth.

The fol­low­ing busi­ness­es failed the com­pli­ance check on March 21st and sold either alco­holic bev­er­age or THC Vape prod­ucts to the under­age cus­tomer, and the clerk was issued a summons.

• Lin­den Sev­en Eleven (sale of alco­holic bev­er­age to a minor)
• Tobac­co Hut Front Roy­al #2 (sale of Vape prod­uct to minor)
• Cir­cle K 6th Street (sale of alco­holic bev­er­age to a minor)
• Lib­er­ty Gas 5th Street (sale of alco­holic bev­er­age to a minor)
The fol­low­ing busi­ness­es failed the com­pli­ance check on March 23rd and sold either alco­holic bev­er­age or THC Vape prod­ucts to the under­age cus­tomer, and the clerk was issued a summons.

• Tobac­co Hut Front Roy­al #1 (sale of THC Vape to a minor)
• Roy’s Express (sale of alco­holic bev­er­age to a minor)
• BP Gas Sta­tion, South Street (sale of alco­holic bev­er­age to a minor)
• River­mont Gro­cery Store (sale of alco­holic bev­er­age to a minor)
• 619 Mar­ket (sale of alco­holic bev­er­age to a minor)

It is the goal of the Sheriff’s Office to con­duct a bal­anced approach to keep­ing our chil­dren and young peo­ple safe through edu­ca­tion and enforce­ment; how­ev­er, there will be a zero-tol­er­ance approach tak­en in the event of sales to under­age persons.

The Sheriff’s Office will con­tin­ue con­duct­ing such checks at busi­ness­es through­out the spring and sum­mer. Major Jef­frey Driskill wish­es to thank the War­ren Coali­tion for part­ner­ing with the office and sup­port­ing these pub­lic safe­ty ini­tia­tives in part through the JAM grant.

Approved for release on April 14, 2022: Major Jef­frey Driskill, Sr., Major