CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Alcohol Beverage Control Administration Commissioner Fred Wooten suspended the license of a Charleston bar Wednesday following a Tuesday night raid on the establishment by police.
According to investigators, the Park Place bar has been ground zero for criminal activity on the city’s West Side for some time. ABCA Commissioner Wooten said he wanted to take swift action.
“While the investigation is ongoing and further actions may be taken, the ABCA is sending a strong message that illegal drugs and other illegal activity will not be tolerated at any ABCA establishment,” Wooton said in a statement released by the agency.
The goal is to completely shut down the bar, Charleston Police Chief of Detectives Steve Cooper said.
“Because of the myriad of offenses and the depth and breadth of the investigation, we are hopeful that will get done,” Cooper said.
Police believe their was an “open air drug market” operating inside and outside the bar.
“It was like a drive-thru restaurant,” Cooper said. “Cars pull up or people walk up, they have a brief interaction with a dealer, they exchange money for drugs, typically crack cocaine or heroin, it’s really a scourge on a neighborhood.”
Now kids getting off the school bus won’t have to walk through a group of drug dealers on their way home, Cooper said.
“It was completely destroying an entire portion of the West Side of Charleston,” he said. “It was almost like a malignant tumor. There was so much criminal activity emanating from there.”
Four people were arrested Tuesday night with many more to come, police said.
Cooper said the owners of bar won’t be able to tell the ABCA they knew nothing about what was going on.
“All I can really say at this point is that we have a very convincing case, not only about those who have been arrested, but also about the establishment’s involvement,” Cooper said.