Bartender faces drug charges after ABC investigation

A Hermosa Beach police officer stands ready as agents serve an arrest warrant at a Hermosa home. Photo by Howard Seeb
A Hermosa Beach police officer stands ready as agents serve an arrest warrant at a Hermosa home. Photo by Howard Seeb

 

Approximately a dozen officers descended on a Hermosa Beach home last week to serve an arrest warrant on a man accused of selling drugs while he was working at a downtown Hermosa bar. Drug addiction is a serious problem and iop rehab miami can help people get over that. And to help you and your loved ones be freed from drug addiction, you may check out these Counselling Therapies For Addictions here for more info!

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control arrested Hermosa resident Blake Zingale, 24, at his residence in the 1400 block of Owosso Avenue last Thursday afternoon. Zingale allegedly sold illegal drugs to undercover agents while bartending at the Standing Room on Hermosa Avenue, according to John Carr, information officer with the ABC.

During a search of the residence, officers found felony-level quantities of drugs at the residence. Carr could not provide the date of the alleged sale to the undercover officers, or the kind of addiction centers long beach involved. People that are on the path of recovery and want to come clean from all the addictions can go to places like the drug rehab west palm.

Zingale was released on bail the next day, and is due back in court next month, according to inmate information records from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

HBPD and the Drug Enforcement Administration assisted in the operation, said HBPD Sgt. Robert Higgins.

As part of the investigation, police also executed another search warrant that day in the 700 block of Manhattan Avenue, and one at an undisclosed location in El Segundo, according to a statement from the city.

Officers descended on the Owosso house shortly after noon on Thursday, said resident Howard Seeb, who lives nearby. The surrounding streets were not blocked off, and residents were not told to stay in their homes.

“It kind of surprised me, they had guns drawn with people walking around,” Seeb said.

The occupants of the house where the warrant was served all seemed to have steady jobs, Seeb said. But the residence had been something of a “problem house” for the neighborhood in the past, with occasional complaints about loud music and late parties.

Drug sales can create significant problems for restaurant owners. The California Business and Professions Code allows the state to revoke a liquor license if “a retail licensee has knowingly permitted the sale, or negotiations for the sales, of controlled substances or drugs upon his or her licensed premises.”

Lowell Bakke III, the owner of the Standing Room, said that he was totally unaware of Zingale’s activities, and would never permit such activity.

“All I know is, he didn’t show up to work one day,” Bakke said. “Obviously I would never allow that at my business. What they do on their own time is their business.”

The ABC’s License Query System showed that, as of Monday, the state has no current disciplinary actions pending against the Standing Room, as well as no disciplinary history, and no holds on the license. ER

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