ALCOHOL SALES MONITORED ACTIVISTS SAY SOME A.V. STORE CLERKS SELL LIQUOR TO MINORS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Alcohol-control activists are calling for more enforcement of laws against the selling of alcohol to minors, especially in the Antelope Valley's unincorporated areas.

Teen-agers say there are three Littlerock stores at which they can buy alcohol from certain clerks, activist Susan Zaks said.

``They know when to go, when certain people are working,'' Zaks said.

Activists at an Antelope Valley Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs meeting with state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control officials said they want more law-enforcement stings, in which a teen-ager would be sent into a liquor store or minimart or other store to try to buy alcohol.

``We very much understand their impact and effectiveness,'' said Xavier Flores, executive director of Pueblo Y Salud, a San Fernando-based community organization that last year opened a Palmdale office. ``We don't see them done often enough.''

State law says a business will lose its alcohol-sales license if it is caught selling to minors three times within three years, but Flores said sting operations often do not target the same business but once every two years or so.

Sheriff's officials said they do stings frequently in Lancaster, Palmdale and local unincorporated areas. The last was Feb. 8, when teens and undercover deputies visited eight businesses in Littlerock, 10 in Palmdale and eight in other areas.

None of the Littlerock businesses sold to the teen decoy, officials said, yet a Littlerock gasoline station sold to a decoy during a sting the previous June, officials said.

Beverage Control Assistant Director Lupe Garcia said his department does not conduct stings against businesses, though it provides training for local police departments to do so.

The state department conducts what it calls ``shoulder tap'' undercover operations, in which a teen approaches adults outside of stores and asks them to buy alcohol for him, Garcia said.

In a recent ``shoulder tap'' operation in Mammoth Lakes, a teen approached a man outside a store and asked him to buy alcohol, according to Beverage Control deputy division chief Joe Cruz.

The man turned out to be only 19 himself, but he told the teen he could sell him alcohol he had in his car. The car also contained four pounds of marijuana, which the man had been selling to skiers.

Garcia and Cruz urged the activists to call their department to report complaints about businesses, whether because of sales to minors, sales to intoxicated persons or even the accumulation of trash and graffiti.

``We are complaint-driven,'' Garcia said.

The department has 89 investigators to cover 35,000 businesses that sell alcohol in Southern California, the officials said.

Beverage Control reports three priorities for investigation: allegations of sales to minors, sales to intoxicated people, and ``problem premises'' - businesses with high crime rates and other suspect conditions.