Sweep Finds 12 of 34 Stores Selling to Minors

More than a third of the store clerks targeted in a weekend police sweep sold liquor to minors, authorities said Monday.

The liquor decoy program targeted 34 stores, 12 of which sold alcohol to 18- and 19-year-olds working with police, investigators said.

The sweep, which was prompted by residents’ complaints, was conducted a few days after the officials of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control officials said they wanted to take away the liquor license of Me-N-Paul’s Market in the 2400 block of East Ball Road.

The owner and a clerk of that store have been charged with selling seven six-packs of beer to three teen-agers in July. The teens then went on a desert trip that ended in a crash that killed four people, authorities said. The driver’s blood-alcohol level was 0.16, twice the legal limit, police said.

The store had sold alcohol to teen-agers three times in the past 14 months, an agency spokesman said. It was not targeted in the most recent sweep.

At another convenience store where a clerk sold liquor during the sweep, a 14-year-old boy had been gunned down by a gang member while his friends were pumping gas last month, police said. The store, AM/PM Arco in the 2400 block of West Lincoln Avenue, was cited for a liquor law violation.

The weekend sweep was the ninth in the decoy program, which is funded by a state grant.