By Kayleigh Anderson
During the month of May, the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) conducted “Operation Smoke Out,” an initiative to crack down on smoke shops that violated the law during compliance checks. The operation resulted in 54 arrests as they made 266 checks on shops in the month of May.
Several businesses were checked more than once. Two businesses in Shirley even violated the law on two separate occasions. Police seized more than 56,000 vape items during the initiative. They also confiscated gambling machines and weapons during the checks.
The operation began with the cooperation of the Suffolk County Executive’s office. A spokesperson for the SCPD told Long Island Life & Politics that the operation started because of the results of recent compliance checks of business, where 30% failed to comply with the law. The operation mainly targeted businesses who were selling or displaying flavored vape products to minors. ““Community complaints typically contain the name of a store or specific employee that has been selling flavored vape products, or tobacco and vape products to underaged people. Every tip is then investigated,” the spokesperson said.
Grace Kelly-McGovern, the public relations director of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, said her department’s Office of Health Education and Tobacco Enforcement inspects all tobacco and vape shops for compliance with the state’s Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act (ATUPA). Underage youth inspectors are trained under NYS ATUPA guidelines in an attempt to buy tobacco and flavored vape products from smoke shop employees while being accompanied by Public Health Sanitarians.
“Vendors found to be in violation of New York State and Suffolk County laws are given violation notices and, if found guilty after a hearing, are fined and given points against their licenses to sell tobacco, vape products and lottery [tickets],” Kelly-McGovern said. “Repeated violations can result in large increases in fines and the accumulation of points leading to the permanent loss of their tobacco registration and lottery licenses.”
Almost every day when the operation was in motion, an arrest was made. Agents went undercover and arrested numerous smoke shop employees. The most common arrests were for selling flavored vapes and selling to minors, but some of the arrests were a bit unique.
On May 15, Suffolk County police arrested employee Levent Kara, at Ultra Gas in Islip. Kara sold a flavored vape to an underage, undercover officer, and the establishment also had four electronic poker machines. Not only was Kara charged with the sale of flavored vape products, but he was also charged with possession of gambling devices and promoting gambling.
On May 22, officers checked 13 more locations for age compliance related to sales of vape and tobacco products. Patel Rohitkumar, an employee at Main Street Smoke Beer and Convenience in Center Moriches, sold a flavored vape to an underaged person. More than 500 illegal vape products were seized from the store.
While police can arrest employees for selling tobacco, flavored vapes and illegal cannabis products to underage investigators, Kelly-McGovern said, “At the same time, the Health Department has the authority to levy fines and points against the vendor’s license, maximizing the effectiveness of the multi-department effort in protecting the youth of Suffolk County.”
In the state of New York to purchase a vape the person must be 21 or older, but all flavored vapes are illegal in the state of New York.