Craig speaking to Ajami minutes before closing down his Sunoco gas station on eight mile

DETROIT— Bassam Saleh’s
business was one of several visited by police last weekend as part of an
attempt to crack down on the sale of drug paraphernalia at Detroit gas
stations.

Police visited
Saleh’s station after Mike Ajami, the owner of the Sunoco gas station on Eight
Mile Road was shut down for selling drug set-up kits for smoking crack.

Ajami said Detroit
Police Chief James Craig should have given him a warning before shutting down
the business.

“The police
are just doing their job,” Saleh said. “A gas station owner was caught selling
drug kits and law enforcement officials have to make sure other businesses are
not selling illegal items.”

He added that he
had nothing to worry about when police visited his station.

“We don’t sell
things that can hurt other people,” Saleh said.

The closing of
Ajami’s gas station came shorty after Detroit Police, The Oakland County
Sheriff’s Department, the FBI and Michigan State Police raided homes and
businesses along the Woodward corridor Tuesday, July 21.

In those raids,
police caught people with cocaine, heroin, marijuana and guns. They also made
12 arrests.

Craig said people
using illegal drugs were coming into Ajami’s station knowing they could get a
drug set-up kit. The kits were being sold in a brown bag. 

Craig placed a
yellow “business closed” sign in front of Ajami’s business. The gas station has
since re-opened. Ajami claimed other businesses are selling drug kits and it
wasn’t fair that his was singled out.

While speaking to
Craig, Ajami tried to justify the sale of the drug kits by saying he wasn’t
actually selling drugs. 

Craig said
businesses should know action will be taken if they are operating outside the
law. 

The Detroit Police
has also been cracking down on gas stations selling “loosies”, which are loose
cigarettes, for a long time. Gas station owners say they don’t make money from
selling “loosies”, but if they don’t sell them to customers who can’t afford
cigarettes, problems are likely to occur.

“We don’t sell
this stuff,” Saleh said. “It is all headaches and problems.”

For decades, Arab and
Chaldean American small business owners have been the backbone of Detroit’s
economy. They are also sources of food and basic goods to many people in the
community.

Saleh said some
gas station owners might be selling the drug kits without knowing their
purpose.

“They
probably don’t know what it is for. Of course I am against it,” he said.

Saleh is encouraging
the police to also focus on people selling drugs on the street, which has
become a major issue for him as a business owner.

Nasser Beydoun, a
businessman and member of the Tri-County Business Committee, which advocates on
behalf of Detroit area gas station owners, supports Craig’s decision to shut down
the station. 

He believes Ajami
should have been given a warning.

“We had hoped
that there would be some type of warning. We don’t agree with the sale of
something illegal,” he said.

The Tri-County
Business Committee has organized meetings between Craig and gas station owners
to discuss licensing and ticketing issues.

Beydoun said
another meeting that will only include station owners is scheduled for Aug. 10
at Byblos Banquet Hall in Dearborn beginning 7 p.m.

The crackdown on
the sale of drug set-up kits comes in the wake of gas station owners
complaining about receiving multiple tickets for the same offense, despite
meeting with Craig and others from the Detroit Police Department about the issue.

Business owners
say they are getting ticketed for not having a business license. Even after
they pay the ticket, they get ticketed again, because they are still waiting
for city inspectors to show up at their stations and check everything before
the process is complete.

In October, Craig
told The Arab American News that he would place a moratorium on issuing
licensing tickets to gas station owners. However, some business owners say the
excessive ticketing hasn’t stopped. 

Craig also told the
paper that he doesn’t want the police department to deal with licensing issues,
adding that the issues should be handled by the Detroit Buildings, Safety
Engineering and Environmental Department.

Beydoun said the
meetings were beneficial and that the ticketing of gas station owners has not
been as excessive as in the past. He also said the meetings helped raise
awareness about Project Lighthouse, a neighborhood watch program.

“There are
people still being ticketed,” Beydoun said. “I think it has gone down tremendously.
I haven’t heard as many people complaining about ticketing.”

Beydoun said that
vice cops, who deal with narcotics and prostitution, were previously ticketing
gas station owners, but that has since stopped. Now the tickets are given out
by trained officers who are told which stations to visit.

According to
Beydoun, gas station owners are now getting ticketed for selling illegal items
such as “loosies” rather than for licensing issues.

“Right now
they are targeting stations and liquor stores that have illegal
items,” he said. 

Beydoun said gas
station owners are not as organized as they should be and have to become more
active.

“They
can’t just react when something wrong happens,” he said.” They have to be
part of an organization that speaks on their behalf.”