About 14 Syracuse Police officers raided Maggie’s Tavern at about 11:20 p.m. Thursday and confiscated at least 30 fictitious IDs and issued another 15-20 citations for possession of alcohol under the age of 21, said Sgt. Joel Cordone.

This raid, part of the Operation Prevent initiative funded by a grant from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Commission, included Public Safety officers and State Liquor Authority investigator John Coney, Cordone said.

‘The liquor authority is here to deal with any problems with the establishment involving the sale of alcohol,’ he said.

An extra precaution present at Maggie’s is a video surveillance system used to record each person and the ID they use as they enter the bar. This is a safeguard establishments can use to prove that they were checking IDs at the door, Cordone said.

For this reason no bartenders were charged Thursday because those people in the bar who were underage misidentified themselves by using a fictitious ID, he said.

‘As a Maggie’s employee we make sure that no one underage is allowed in,’ said Tom Grant, a senior Information studies major, head bouncer and barback at Maggie’s. ‘That is how Maggie’s is run.’

The Operation Prevent raids are being used to show students that it is against the law to consume alcohol underage and to use a fictitious ID in order to obtain it.

‘In New York state it is a felony to use a fictitious ID to represent yourself. We are not charging people with a felony, we are trying to deter people from underage drinking,’ Cordone said.

Instead of the felony, students were issue appearance tickets. Cordone warned that this is not the last students have seen of Prevent on Marshall Street.

‘Will there be more? Absolutely. We are funded through the fall semester,’ he said.

Published on September 4, 2003 at 12:00 pm