Police Cite Liquor Stores, Bars for Sales to Minors

A 19-year-old decoy was able to buy booze in 10 of 36 west San Fernando Valley liquor stores targeted by Los Angeles police during a weekend sting operation aimed at cracking down on outlets that routinely sell to minors, officials said Tuesday.

The sting was one of two such operations in the Valley over the weekend and resulted in misdemeanor citations to clerks at four stores in Reseda, four in Canoga Park and one each in Woodland Hills and Tarzana, police said.

Although such operations have been more common in the northeast Valley in recent years, they also have occurred sporadically elsewhere. Underage civilians specially trained by the police are used as decoys.

“We felt the problem was beginning to blossom . . . and with the summer coming on we felt we needed to have a full-scale attack and we brought on the whole unit to do it,” said Capt. Valentino Paniccia of the Police Department’s West Valley Division.

In the other weekend effort aimed at alcohol-related violations in the East Valley, a task force of Los Angeles police and Department of Alcohol Beverage Control agents investigated 38 bars and liquor stores in Sylmar, Pacoima and Sunland-Tujunga. That operation resulted in 28 arrests for violations that included sale to minors, serving alcohol to intoxicated persons and the use of so-called “bar girls” to boost alcohol sales.

Foothill Division Sgt. Cary Krebs said bar girls are a common element in the beer bars that cater to low-income single men who emigrate here from Mexico. Krebs said the women talk to the men, dance with them and encourage them to buy them drinks. Soliciting drinks in such a manner is illegal, he said.

ABC district administrator Jim Smith said violations occurred at seven bars and four of 19 liquor stores hit by the sting operation. He said five of the bars had been cited for similar violations before and will face administrative punishment by ABC.

He said the relatively low number of liquor stores cited for selling to minors resulted from stepped-up enforcement efforts by his department and Los Angeles police during the past 2 1/2 years.

Paniccia moved from the Foothill Division to the West Valley Division only three months ago and brought with him firsthand knowledge of how stings can pressure alcohol sellers to operate lawfully.

He said the rate of violations by alcohol sellers that the West Valley decoy operation discovered Saturday night was “pretty high” and that additional enforcement efforts are being planned.

He said West Valley communities generally are more affluent than those in the northeast Valley, but they have similar problems. “It doesn’t matter how rich the community, kids will be using the booze,” he said.