Santa Maria Police crackdown on drug and alcohol related crimes
Police were out in full force Saturday cracking down on drug and alcohol-related crimes.
In the afternoon, Santa Maria Police conducted an Alcoholic Beverage Control “Shoulder Tap” operation throughout the City of Santa Maria.
During the operation, a minor decoy under the direct supervision of officers attempts to get a person from the community to purchase beverages from an ABC licensed establishment.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/SMPDHQ/status/1028442343987236865″,”author_name”:”Santa Maria Police”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/SMPDHQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Furnishing alcohol to minors is against the law and you can be arrested. Too many minors are injured as a result of minors being under the influence of alcohol. Let’s put a stop to it! – A message from SMPD Sergeant Eligio Lara. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/sfJCfFkjcc”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/sfJCfFkjcc&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Santa Maria Police (@SMPDHQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/SMPDHQ/status/1028442343987236865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 12, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
Out of twenty-one individuals contacted during the operation two suspects purchased alcohol for the minor decoy. The suspects were then contacted by officers and arrested and charged for purchasing alcohol for the minor decoy.
During the investigation, it was discovered that one of the suspects, 33-year old Antonio Dominguez Vazquez from Santa Maria, had a misdemeanor arrest warrant for charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol. This suspect was cited for purchasing alcohol for the minor decoy and booked on the warrant charges.
The other suspect, 35-year old Phillip Saldana Becerra from Santa Maria, was issued a citation at the scene for purchasing alcohol for the minor decoy and was also cited for driving a motor vehicle with a suspended license.
During the operation, a third suspect, 65-year old Gabriel Rojas Valencia from Santa Maria, was cited for consuming alcohol on private property open to the public.
In the evening, Santa Maria Police conducted a DUI checkpoint at 900 S. Broadway between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. One DUI-related arrest and one citation were issued during this arrest.
Here are the results from this operation:
488 Vehicles Screened
0 DUI-Alcohol suspect arrested
1 DUI-Drug impaired suspect arrested
0 Suspects arrested for illegal drugs (possession/transportation/sales)
0 Arrested on other Criminal Charges
0 Driver cited/arrested for operating a vehicle unlicensed or while suspended/revoked
1 Citation issued
Drivers are encouraged to download the Designated Driver VIP app which is free for any Android or iPhone.
Santa Maria Police will conduct another DUI checkpoint on August 25.
