Five St. Mary's businesses fail alcohol compliance checks, four fail tobacco checks

The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office Alcohol Enforcement Unit recently conducted separate alcohol and tobacco compliance checks.

On March 21, alcohol compliance checks were performed using a sheriff's office confidential informant, who was 18 years old and wearing jeans and an athletic sweatshirt, according to a release from the agency. The underage individual was informed to enter the business and request to purchase an alcoholic beverage.

Seventeen businesses were visited, and 12 were found to be following Maryland law.

Five businesses failed to ask for identification and/or corroborate the informant's age, and the informant was illegally served an alcoholic beverage.

The following business failed to ask for identification from the underage individual: Antoinette’s Garden in Leonardtown, Slice House in Leonardtown, The Front Porch in Leonardtown, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store in California and Olive Garden Italian Restaurant in California.

The alcohol violation report was forwarded to the St. Mary's County Alcohol Beverage Board for review.

On March 26, the sheriff's office conducted a succession of tobacco compliance checks within St. Mary's County. The covert compliance checks involved using an underage confidential informant wearing athletic pants and a sweatshirt, according to the sheriff's office.

The informant was told to enter the store and retrieve a tobacco product from the business location in an effort to purchase said tobacco product.

Overall, ten businesses were visited, of which four failed to ask for identification and/or corroborate the informant's age and allowed the informant to purchase tobacco products.

The following business failed to ask for identification from the underage individual: Vape Pro in Mechanicsville, Birdies Shell in Mechanicsville, Tobacco King and Vape in Lexington Park and Family Dollar on Great Mills Road in Lexington Park.