Suffolk County Police Arrest Two for Selling Vape Products to Minors

Two employees at separate smoke shops along Middle Country Road were arrested March 19 after undercover investigators with the Suffolk County Police Sixth Precinct caught them selling vape products to an underage person, authorities said. The operation swept through eight businesses in Selden and Middle Island before identifying two that were out of compliance.

Khalifah Mohamed, 31, of Selden, was arrested at Convenience Tobacco on Middle Country Road. Abigail Dougal, 30, of Sound Beach, was arrested at MI Convenience & Smoke Shop on Middle Country Road in Middle Island. Both were charged with unlawfully dealing with a child in the second degree. Investigators also seized flavored vape products from MI Convenience & Smoke Shop.

The Sixth Precinct launched the operation in response to community complaints about underage tobacco sales. Police used undercover compliance checks, a standard enforcement tool in which investigators attempt to purchase age-restricted products without revealing their identity, to determine which businesses were selling to minors.

Mohamed and Dougal were issued field appearance tickets rather than taken into custody, and both are scheduled to appear at First District Court in Central Islip at a later date.

The Selden and Middle Island arrests were not an isolated enforcement push. Second Precinct investigators recently targeted 10 vape shops across the Town of Huntington following similar community complaints, arresting Ali Abdoulla Alssoudi, 34, of Brooklyn, an employee at Joe Joe Convenience and Candy Store at 212 Depot Road in Huntington Station, and Osvani Ramos Tiros, 28, of Huntington Station, an employee at Tobacco Corner at 117 Walt Whitman Road. Both were charged with unlawfully dealing with a child and issued field appearance tickets.

A parallel operation in the Third Precinct extended the enforcement pattern to alcohol sales. Third Precinct investigators checked seven businesses in Bay Shore and arrested Vikramjeek Singh, 20, an employee at USA Petroleum at 95 Moffitt Blvd., and Havinder Thiara, 44, the owner of Sun Shore Liquors at 1241 Sunrise Highway. Thiara faced an additional charge of second-degree obstructing governmental administration on top of the unlawfully-dealing charge. Both are scheduled to appear in First District Court in Central Islip.

Across all three operations, each launched in response to community complaints and each resulting in charges heard at the same Central Islip courthouse, the pattern reflects a coordinated county-wide effort to crack down on businesses selling nicotine and alcohol products to minors through targeted undercover enforcement.