Alcohol sting nets eight Des Plaines businesses

Des Plaines police say they caught eight businesses selling liquor to minors in a recent underage drinking sting.

Des Plaines Police Chief Jim Prandini said the employees who sold the alcohol to undercover 19-year-olds were arrested and will face charges. Business owners or managers could be fined or the establishment could even lose its liquor license, based on a hearing before the liquor commissioner, Mayor Marty Moylan.

The offending businesses are: River Rand Food and Liquor, 301 S. River Road; Oakton Liquors, 919 E. Oakton St.; Dominick's, 1555 S. Lee St.; Packy's Wine and Liquor, 1440 E. Oakton St.; Columbus Foods and Liquor, 1651 E. Rand Road; Excueses Bar, 901 E. Oakton St.; Beacon Tap, 1374 S. Lee St.; Kuhn's Deli, 749 W. Golf Road.

For a few of those businesses, it was a second or third violation. Businesses that have a history of such violations could be looking at a possible license revocation, Prandini said.

Prandini announced the sting operation at a city council meeting earlier this year after the council approved a new class of liquor licenses for gas stations with convenience stores allowing them to sell packaged beer and wine.

"We've been doing these operations since the last week of June," he said. "We are targeting every liquor establishment in Des Plaines that sells and or serves alcohol."

Of the roughly 103 establishments in town that either sell or serve alcohol, police so far have checked about 53 locations.

"None of the gas stations that are currently selling alcohol have violated the liquor license ordinance," Prandini said.

In some cases, the employees of those eight businesses checked IDs of the undercover 19-year-olds but still served or sold alcohol to the minors.

"Most of them have not even bothered to card the underage patrons that we send in there," Prandini said.