Syracuse Police raided Maggies Restaurant and Sports Bar early this morning, issuing approximately 150 citations, mostly to underage patrons. The event marked the return of the state’s underage drinking prevention program, Operation Prevent.

At 12:30 a.m. today, 22 officers entered Maggies on Marshall Street, shutting the doors and checking IDs. Police allowed students to leave the bar through the back entrance – some wandering out in tears – holding pink, yellow and white slips requiring court appearances in late April. Some students made frantic calls from their cell phones, while others tried to get back into the bar to grab coats and find friends. The two-hour raid, which Sgt. Joel Cordone of the SPD said has been planned for a month, resulted in citations for underage drinking, sale of alcohol to a minor and possessing or using fake identification. The tickets do not list a specific fine, but do give a date for required appearance in traffic court, he said.

Capt. Shannon Trice of the SPD estimated there were 300 people inside the bar and that about half received citations. Depending on the judge, the fines could cost between $100 and $250, Trice said.

The raid involved officers from SPD, the New York State Liquor Authority, the New York State Police and the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office.

The police operation marks the return of Operation Prevent, an initiative to reduce underage drinking near the university. The program began in 2003 with an $18,500 grant to the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. It uses sting operations at university-area bars to make arrests for underage drinking and using fake identification.

The last raid occurred 17 months ago, on Oct. 26, 2007, and resulted in almost 100 citations. That raid was planned after complaints from the university, which was seeing a rise in the number of students sent to the hospital for underage drinking.

But the motivation is different this time around, Cordone said, because the university did not contact SPD. He said this raid was driven by an increase in anonymous complaints to SPD and the state liquor authority from Syracuse residents.

‘This is the number one way people end up getting assaulted, raped, become victims of crime, become injured,’ Trice said. ‘So we don’t want people to drink too much.’

Cordone said Maggies will be fined for violations of state liquor law because bartenders served underage patrons. The bar has had problems in the past with violations, he said.

Jenelle Tortorella, a junior broadcast journalism major, was issued a ticket for underage drinking. ‘The owners of this bar know the students are underage that go here,’ she said. ‘I feel like it was extremely premeditated and intended to make money for the police department. But the fact is, though, that they know were underage. They know we have fake IDs.’

Cordone said the sting operation was carefully planned.

‘It was packed. It was quite busy tonight,’ Cordone said. ‘And a lot of the people we dealt with said they expected it, it was coming, and they were surprised we didn’t come sooner.’

Cordone said another raid is already planned for the end of the semester.

‘We’ll be back, definitely. We’ll be back,’ he said. ‘We’re not done up here, or anywhere else in the city.’

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Published on March 31, 2009 at 12:00 pm