Six clerks arrested in alcohol sales sting
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

Police arrested six sales clerks who allegedly sold alcohol to teens during a sting operation last week at 30 stores throughout Camarillo.

Deputies with the Camarillo Police Department and agents from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control used 18yearold decoys to buy alcohol at the Camarillo stores.

The six clerks, all Camarillo residents, included two males, 16 and 17 years old, 18-year-old Nicole Alrdich, Jahnel Forte, 21, Pritpal Singh, 33, and Valentina Naco, 40, police said.

Authorities said all of the clerks were cited and released with a notice to appear in court.

Sgt. Robert Thomas, head of Camarillo Police Department's special enforcement detail, said the sting operation followed guidelines set by the ABC.

He said the three teens used in the operation- two males, one female- had to look 18 and carry a valid California driver's license. They were told to answer truthfully any question asked of them.

Thomas said in two different instances clerks asked for driver's licenses and looked at the teens' birthdates, but allowed them to purchase the alcohol even though they were minors.

According to Thomas, the 16year-old clerk at the Kmart store on Arneill Road went so far as to type a fake date of birth in to the cash register in order to process the transaction.

Thomas said the point of the ongoing sting operations is not to arrest the clerks, most of whom will be charged with a misdemeanor and pay a fine, but to discourage local stores from selling alcohol to minors.

"We'd be happy if all the stores did not sell alcohol to teens," he said. "Our whole goal is to gain compliance from the stores that are selling alcohol, to sell alcohol responsibly."

The stores that allegedly sold alcohol to minors were Kmart, 940 Arneill Road, CVS Pharmacy, 5259 Mission Oaks Blvd., Neal's Food Market, 5000 Santa Rosa Road, 99 Cent Store, 301 Arneill Road, Central Market, 205 N. Glenn Drive and CVS Pharmacy, 351 Carmen Drive.