FEDERAL AGENTS RAID EIGHT BROWARD COUNTY STORES, IN PARAPHERNALIA SEARCH

Federal agents raided eight Broward County stores Friday afternoon, seizing
thousands of items described as being used solely for the ingestion of
illegal narcotics.

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents served the warrants
shortly after noon, collecting pipes, tubes, smoking masks and clips.

"We received some [information] from different sources and had our agents
look into it," said Alexander Alonso, assistant special agent in charge of
the agency's Miami office. "We discovered there were at least eight major
violators, and today we served warrants at those locations."

Agents went to Peace Pipe and Cloudy Daze in Fort Lauderdale; We-B-Joys
Novelties in Oakland Park; High Tide Tobacco & Gifts in Wilton Manors;
Grateful J's in Margate; Big D's Deadhead and Gift Shop in Pompano Beach;
and the Twisted Melon smoke shops in both Pompano Beach and Wilton Manors.

Agents arrested three employees during the sweeps, two of them for active
warrants and one for possession of cocaine. No arrests were made in
connection with the sale of the drug paraphernalia.