Stock photo via Pexels<\/p>\n
A joint operation by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office has shuttered 13 smoke shops across the city over the past six months, according to CBS Philadelphia<\/a> and 6abc (WPVI)<\/a>.<\/p>\n The effort is led by State Representative Amen Brown, who says many of the targeted shops in his district have been selling drugs and out-of-state cigarettes in violation of the law.<\/p>\n The most recent closure came Friday, September 5, when the 4026 Convenience Store on Market Street in West Philadelphia was raided after a multi-day undercover operation. Officers recovered firearms, narcotics, and cash.<\/p>\n Brown told WPVI it was not the first attempt to shut the location down, but the first to succeed.<\/p>\n What Was Found and Who Was Affected<\/p>\n Brown told 6abc that one of his central concerns is that the shops were selling marijuana to minors. The cannabis being sold was contaminated with multiple deadly pathogens. He described it as a direct public health threat.<\/p>\n Neighbor Cynthia Ebo told Action News the Market Street location had been a around-the-clock nuisance for years, with a steady stream of customers at all hours.<\/p>\n Omar Donaldson, who lives above the shuttered store, told CBS Philadelphia he had assumed it was a legitimate business. He welcomed the closure, saying the city does not need operations like it right now.<\/p>\n The Scale of the Operation<\/p>\n Thirty more are in the crosshairs. Brown said his team has identified 30 smoke shops within his district that are under scrutiny, and the operation will continue pursuing them.<\/p>\n Philadelphia police confirmed a narcotics operation took place at the location but did not disclose whether any arrests were made or whether charges against the store’s owner are pending.<\/p>\n Action News reported that multiple attempts to reach the owner for comment went unanswered.<\/p>\n Brown’s Position on Small Businesses<\/p>\n Brown, whose district covers parts of West Philadelphia, has been clear that the crackdown is not aimed at legitimate small businesses. He told CBS Philadelphia that small businesses deserve to thrive, but only when operating within the law.<\/p>\n He described the targeted shops as springing up rapidly and openly advertising illegal cannabis sales. Nobody is above that standard.<\/p>\n The operation drew additional neighborhood attention in the days following the raid, with customers arriving to find the Market Street store locked and shuttered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stock photo via Pexels A joint operation by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-281140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}