A new state law requiring identification for beer purchases and the abundance of illegal aliens in the Lakeway Area have converged to create a new niche market, Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin said this morning.
What apparently was lacking in Hamblen County, the sheriff says, were stores that would sell beer to illegal aliens who don't possess legal identification.
"The Hispanics cannot purchase beer because they don't have IDs so they are opening up their little bootlegging outfits to cater to their fellow Hispanics," Jarnagin said. "We are regressing back to the bootlegging days. That's what it is."
The two entrepreneurs who responded to fill the void in the Hamblen County capitalist landscape allegedly are illegal aliens themselves, according to the sheriff.
Jose Diaz Ortiz, 44, and Pilar P. Perez, 33, allegedly were selling beer from the McDaniel Trailer Park on Fish Hatchery Road, which law enforcement officials sometimes call "Little Mexico."
When Hamblen County Sheriff's Department officials raided the trailer shortly after 2 a.m. today, they confiscated 40 cases of beer, including Corona, Model, Budweiser, Bud Light and Miller, according to the sheriff.
"They had about any kind you would want," Jarnagin said. "You could buy beer 24-7 out there. They were selling it basically at a dollar a beer. The price is not inflated a great amount. It's just serving the population, the illegals."
Authorities also confiscated a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun.
Both Ortiz and Perez face charges of the illegal sale of alcohol and illegal storage of liquor for sale.
The sheriff said this morning that he would be contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents today because neither suspect could provide a valid Social Security number.
Deputy Eric Carson, who led the operation, obtained a search warrant after an undercover informant purchased beer at the trailer on Sunday. In all, the sheriff says, Carson has three undercover buys there.
"It was so heavily populated that our informant had to wait about 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot at one time," Jarnagin said. "Everybody is to be commended on their participation in the search warrant. It went without incident, and nobody got hurt."
The sheriff says Ortiz and Perez were operating a mini-convenience store at the trailer. Sheriff's department officials confiscated receipts of foodstuffs from suppliers in Georgia and Florida, as well as establishments located on South Cumberland Street in Morristown.
Jarnagin says that deputies have been receiving reports of illegal beer sales in Hamblen County for "several months," but it took a long time to recruit an informant and get him inside the alleged Fish Hatchery Road bootlegging operation.
"Criminals, they don't have boundaries," the sheriff said. "We have to act within the boundaries set by the Supreme Court and the Constitution."
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