Two Bronx businesses were shuttered Friday by the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) for illegally selling tobacco products without a license, selling to underage youth and numerous of other related violations.
The city closed Marran Convenient Deli Corp, 8 E. Mount Eden Ave., and Azaal Deli Grocery Corp, 1053 Ogden Ave. Under New York City law, tobacco and e-cigarette retail dealer licenses in each community district are capped at 50% of the totals when the law was enacted in 2017.
“The health and well-being of our residents is our number one priority, and it is imperative that we prevent bad actors from illegally selling harmful products to our youth,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson. “I applaud the Department of Consumer Affairs and Worker Protection for taking swift action to prevent these businesses from causing further harm to our community.”
These businesses have repeatedly violated city regulations since 2019. The violations history of each business includes:
DCWP inspectors routinely inspect tobacco and e-cigarette retailers to check for issues related to licensing, signage, sales to young adults under 21 and other related compliance issues. Since 2017, DCWP has inspected more than 33,000 tobacco retail dealers and more than 7,800 electronic cigarette dealers, and issued more than 8,000 summonses to ensure that current tobacco laws are being followed.
Since 2017, DCWP has revoked 1,219 tobacco retail dealer licenses and 1,236 electronic retail dealer licenses. DCWP has also suspended 830 tobacco licenses and 44 electronic cigarette licenses since 2017.
