 Borough President Vito Fossella, Mayor Eric Adams, Police Commissioner Edward Caban, and New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda announced the culmination of months of successful enforcement actions against dozens of smoke shops on Staten Island.
“The people who own these facilities are both deceptive and dangerous,” said Borough President Fossella at a press conference. “They’re deceptive to the community and they’re dangerous because they basically attract young people at an early age and try to get them hooked on drugs.” For more than two years, Borough President Fossella has coordinated with the Sheriff’s office, forwarding constituent reports and providing updates on suspected illegal smoke shops. Borough President Fossella and Mayor Adams have jointly advocated for legislative intervention from the State to clarify the rules of enforcement and empower local law enforcement to crack down on illegal smoke shops. The 2024 New York State Budget included a provision enabling the Sheriff’s office to padlock storefronts found selling illegal marijuana, hold illegal smoke shop owners accountable, and immediately deputize the NYPD to assist in carrying out enforcement actions. On the heels of the expansion of enforcement powers granted by the State, the Sheriff Joint Compliance Task Force launched Operation Padlock to Protect, which conducts widespread compliance inspections. The inspections have led to arrests, summonses, seizures, and other enforcement actions, including evictions. Since the operation commenced, the task force has sealed over 535 illegal smoke shops, resulting in $43 million in civil penalties and $17.5 million in illegal products confiscated. On the day of the press conference, the task force inspected its last 20 reported Staten Island illegal smoke shop locations. Borough President Fossella vowed to continue the joint enforcement effort. “This doesn’t happen without teamwork, and it doesn’t happen without people working together to stand up for the good people of Staten Island,” said Borough President Fossella. “This is just the beginning. These places are like whack-a-mole. They shut them down once, they’ll open three blocks away. We are going to stay on it.” Comments are closed.
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