[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish deputies arrest 9 convenience store clerks caught selling

[Westley Annis]

this is not ludicrous. it starts out like this and gets bigger if it's not
nipped in the bud.

Brenda

-----------------------------------------------------
Wow they don't something better to do than arrest convenience store workers
on this crap?  How is that making the world a safer place?  I agree stores
shouldn't sell things like this, but a whole "Operation" on pipes?
Ludicrous.

B

==========================================

             St. Bernard Parish deputies arrest 9 convenience store clerks
caught
selling
             "crack pipes" on tape
             by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
             Friday May 29, 2009, 3:27 PM
             The man walks into Amin's Quick Stop in Chalmette, buys two
pieces
of fried
             chicken and casually asks the store clerk for "two crack pipes
and
chore
             boy."

             The clerk complies, hands over the two glass pipes and copper
cleaning
             sponge, and the man walks out of the store.

             The scene was captured on camera a month ago and the purchaser
was
an
             undercover informant for the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's
Office.
That clerk
             and eight others were arrested Thursday and booked with
distribution
of drug
             paraphernalia by the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office, after the
informant
             compiled weeks worth of video in an operation meant to cut
down on
sales of
             pipes and other drug accessories in the parish.

             Dubbed "Operation Pipe Dreams," the investigation by the
Sheriff's
Office,
             came after numerous complaints from residents who saw the
items
being sold
             explicitly as drug paraphernalia, sometimes in front of
children.

             The informant explicitly asked clerks for "crack pipes" and "a
bong,
to
             smoke marijuana out of."

             The Sheriff's Office seized more than 500 pipes from seven
different
             convenience stores.

             The glass pipes are often sold as novelty items. For example,
the
items sold
             as "crack pipes" are often sold with a silk rose inside and
called a
"glass
             rose." Some stores had "glass pens," where the cartridge for
an ink
pen can
             be removed and filled with crack.

             Sheriff's officials said Friday that selling such items is
legal,
but not
             when merchants are aware they will be used in connection with
illegal drugs.