3 Cited and Released After Helping Minors Buy Alcohol

Young people posing as decoys Thursday helped the make three arrests at local businesses in a mission to prevent minors from obtaining alcohol, a police said.

Officers worked with the state’s Department of Alcohol Beverage Control in which minors entered 12 establishments with off-sale alcohol licenses and attempted to purchase products with alcohol in them. Two employees sold the products to minors and both were arrested.

In the second phase, minors asked other people outside businesses to make the purchases for them. One more person was arrested.

Sarah Elizabeth Olive, 27, at on Grant Avenue; Norma Martinez, 29, at on Grant; and Toni Marie Cole, 53, at the Square shopping center were all cited and released.

“The Novato Police Department has zero tolerance for furnishing alcohol to the youth in our community,” Sgt. Jennifer Welch said in a release.