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St. Johns County officials search supermarket as part of drug and gambling investigation

HASTINGS, Florida. – A Hastings supermarket was raided on Friday as investigators searched the store for drugs and gambling-related items.

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office searched the 207 Express supermarket on West Church Street.

Because the investigation is ongoing, officials did not release any details about the finds, but Tom Hackney, crime and security analyst at News4JAX, spoke about the connection between drug trafficking and more serious crime.

“Although this search warrant was rather narrow and perhaps focused on the drug and gambling aspect of this place, it is no surprise that the drug aspect in particular is coupled with violence,” he said. How many times this year alone have we seen a connection with a murderer who was involved in some way with drugs.”

After hours of searching, the store was reopened.

“It’s a bit of speculation whether the search warrant was successful or not. One would assume that if it was successful they would close the business,” Hackney said.

Hackney worked for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for 29 years.

“I know this has happened in the past, certainly with JSO and Duval County. When we’ve gone into one of these gambling houses that we’ve determined are operating illegally or there’s more to it, we’ve removed the machines that they’re using because they’re illegal and really shut the business down. So the fact that they’re back open can go either way. It could be that the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is still working on the case to substantiate it based on what they found during the search warrant. Or it could mean that they didn’t find anything at all,” Hackney said.

Hackney also spoke about the impact these crimes can have on the community.

“There’s a little bit of gambling going on here. This seems to be a victimless crime. If people want to spend their money on the machines that they have for that. And what’s wrong with that? Well, that goes back to the drug aspect. So drugs can potentially trigger violence and the violence spills over to people in this community.”

New4JAX tried to speak to the store owner, but he was not there.

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