Only on 11: Beaver County vape shops accused of selling marijuana to kids

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. — Inside Sam’s Mini Mart, it’s quiet after Beaver County detectives confiscate dozens of products.

“When we executed the search warrant... we seized product we purchased prior and were able to get lab tests,” said Beaver County Detective Michael Scheers.

It comes after nearly a yearlong investigation after a guidance counselor reported that a child had marijuana in a vape pen purchased at the store. That minor told police that the store would “sell to a toddler if they walked in.”

After multiple undercover drug buys and lab testing, the store clerk Sanjay Mehra is facing drug deal and possession charges plus corruption of minors.

“They didn’t ask for ID, there were no code words used. They just walked in, picked out what they wanted, didn’t card and sell them the product. In these cases, we have pretty good evidence that the owners and managers were involved in it,” said Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible.

In fact, at Habitual Glass in Center Township the owner Cody Price, Manager Derek McClymond’s, and employees Alex Murray Hoffman, Trey Herdt and Matthew Fonseca are facing charges in a similar undercover operation.

Police took even more drug product from that store, so much so that it overflowed the table in the police department.

“It’s not just happening in these two towns, we know on good authority that it’s happening in multiple other towns and hopefully with the arrest of these two stores it’s going to send a message to the other stores that if you are selling to minors we are looking at you and going to come after you,” Bible said.

While the investigation continues, the two stores do remain open, but according to Sanjay at Sam’s Mini Mart changes are in place. There is now a large sign requiring that identification is shown for all purchases.

“That is by far the biggest concern is that these establishments are selling drugs to underage kids,” Bible said.

The DA encourages any parent who has seen these vape pens to report it to the police. He said they are not going after the students, but the businesses who are selling these drugs to kids.

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