BLOOMINGTON -
Indiana State Excise Police officers just arrested three Bloomington High School North students for underage drinking after they asked two plainclothes excise officers to buy liquor for them.
Shortly before 11 p.m., excise police officers were in the parking lot of CVS, 14th and Walnut Streets, issuing tickets for illegal possession of alcohol and possession of false ID when three juveniles approached them and asked if they would buy them alcohol. They offered the officers $20.00 to buy them a bottle of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum. Oddly enough, they failed to notice other minors dumping out more than $180.00 worth of alcohol as they walked up to the excise officers.
The three juveniles, ages 16 and 17, had already been drinking. They said they ran out of alcohol and needed more. Excise officers contacted their parents, who picked up the Bloomington North students at CVS. All three will face charges of illegal consumption of alcohol in Monroe Circuit Court.
The excise officers are in Bloomington tonight as part of their Intensified College Enforcement (ICE) initiative, which puts extra officers on patrol in Bloomington, Greencastle and Muncie. ICE was launched Feb. 6 as a pilot project aimed at reducing underage drinking at Ball State University, DePauw University and Indiana University-Bloomington.
Last night, excise police officers issued 64 tickets in Bloomington, including 19 for illegal possession or consumption, 10 for possession of false ID and eight for inducing a minor to possess alcohol.
Indiana State Excise Police officers are the enforcement division of the Indiana Alcohol & Tobacco Commission. While excise officers have the authority to enforce any state law, they focus primarily on enforcing Indiana's alcohol and tobacco statutes.
Eyewitness News reporter David MacAnally rode along with Excise Police Wednesday night as they began their crackdown on underage drinking.
(This story is from a media release from Indiana Excise Police.)
