DRUG ACTIVITY SPARKS CITY TO SHUT STORE

DAYTONA BEACH -- Fed up with illegal drug sales at a convenience store, a
city board voted to shut down the business for 10 days -- a sign of Daytona
Beach's growing impatience with chronic crime spots.

"We have to send a message," board member Carl Fields said of the Mar- Lo
Mart at 301 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The Mar-Lo Mart had been declared a nuisance because of drug sales in 1998,
2000 and 2002 and was recently identified by city officials as one of
Daytona Beach's top crime hot spots.

This was the first time the Nuisance Abatement Board voted to shut down a
business -- some board members wanted to permanently close the store.

"How many chances are we going to give him?" board member Warren Trager
said of storeowner Larry Brazil.

Brazil irritated board members by saying he resented previous sanctions,
which have since expired. He must put up a fence, hire a licensed security
guard, prohibit loitering on his parking lot, fix a lock on a gated area
and stop selling drug paraphernalia such as glass tubes used to smoke crack
cocaine.

Brazil said the sanctions weren't fair.

"The majority of my customers are either drug dealers or drug users,"
Brazil said. "I didn't make it that way. None of my employees made it that
way. This is where I'm at and this is what I have."

Confidential informants working for police bought crack cocaine three times
early this year at the Mar-Lo Mart parking lot. Businesses with three or
more drug arrests in six months can be brought before the board, which can
impose sanctions, including shutting down a business.

Board chairman Paul Rice urged Brazil to take the order seriously.

"Next time you're here it's likely to be outright closure," Rice said.

In another case, board members postponed action against the Bethune Village
Market, 835 Mary McLeod Bethune Blvd. If no additional problems occur in
the next six months, the city will dismiss the case.