Riverhead police charge worker in underage alcohol sales sweep
Riverhead police checked 18 businesses for underage alcohol sales and charged one worker at Valero Gas on Old Country Road after the lone failed inspection.
A Valero Gas employee on Old Country Road was the only person charged after Riverhead police checked 18 businesses for underage alcohol sales, leaving 17 establishments in compliance but raising fresh questions about how often local sellers are being tested and how much the sweeps actually deter illegal sales.
Police said the enforcement operation was conducted by the Riverhead Police Department COPE Division with the Riverhead Community Awareness Program, or CAP. At Valero Gas, 1356 Old Country Road, employee Ilyas Cakir, 67, was charged with first-degree unlawful dealing with a child, a class A misdemeanor. The sweep was aimed at businesses that sell alcohol products to patrons under 21, a basic licensing rule with direct consequences for youth safety, merchant liability and the broader risk of alcohol-related crashes and disorder.
The result was narrow, but not isolated. Riverhead police and CAP have used similar compliance checks before, including a June 2024 operation at 15 retail vendors that led to three arrests and a June 2025 sweep of 39 retail establishments that produced one arrest. Taken together, the checks show a recurring enforcement strategy in Riverhead Town, one that mixes prevention with the possibility of arrest when a worker ignores alcohol-sale rules.
CAP says it was founded in 1979 by volunteers responding to growing alcohol- and drug-related problems in Riverhead schools and the surrounding community. Today, the organization describes itself as a major provider of prevention, counseling and coalition services, which makes its partnership in the sweep part of a larger effort to curb underage drinking before it reaches emergency rooms, roadways or school discipline offices.
The latest operation also spotlights a practical question for Suffolk County residents and business owners alike: whether a one-off compliance check is enough to measure the real level of risk, or whether it is mostly a warning shot to retailers that police are still watching. With just one violation out of 18 inspections, the sweep suggests many businesses passed the test. It also leaves Riverhead with a familiar challenge, keeping pressure on alcohol sellers long after the police cars leave the parking lot.
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