Suffolk crackdown on e-cigarette sales to underage buyers leads to arrests at four stores, police say

A crackdown on e-cigarette sales to underage buyers resulted in the arrests of four store employees in Suffolk County Thursday, Suffolk police said.

Police said the arrests were made in Babylon, North Babylon, Miller Place and Mount Sinai.

Saying the crackdowns were in response to "community complaints" in the First and Sixth precincts, police said crime section officers in both precincts set up the compliance checks to catch violators. In the Sixth Precinct, police said the investigations were done with assistance from Community Support officers, the Suffolk County Department of Health and representatives of the Town of Brookhaven.

Arrested were:

• Dharmendra Gadhavi, 36, of Babylon, at The Barn at 358 Deer Park Ave. in Babylon; 
• Hardinger Singh, 27, of Queens, at the Lucky Spot Smoke Shop at 1169 Deer Park Ave. in North Babylon;
• Vipulkumar Patel, 35, of Farmingdale, at Miller Place Vape at 345 Route 25A in Miller Place;
• Joseph Lombardi, 18, of Coram, at MNT Convenience Vape, 5507-3 Route 347 in Mount Sinai.

Police said Gadhavi and Singh were each charged with selling an e-cigarette to a person under 21, while Gadhavi also was charged with false personation. Patel was charged with two counts of unlawful sale of nicotine/vape products to a person under 21, while Lombardi was charged with unlawful sale of cannabis and unlawful sale of nicotine/vape products to a person under 21. All four suspects were issued field appearance tickets.

Police said Singh and Gadhavi are scheduled for arraignment in First District Court in Central Islip on April 19, while Patel and Lombardi are scheduled for arraignment at a later date.

Police said that in the Sixth Precinct officers seized more than 6,900 flavored vape and THC products from businesses — but did not detail which stores those products were seized from.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”