A’s Smoke Shop Owner Ali Sher gives testimony to the East Longmeadow Town Council during a Feb. 10 meeting.
Photo Credit: ELCAT01028
EAST LONGMEADOW — After a disciplinary hearing during its Feb. 10 meeting, the East Longmeadow Town Council voted unanimously to revoke the off-premises retail beer and malt beverage license of A’s Smoke Shop after going through over 70 pages of evidence.
Town Council President Connor O’Shea said that the allegations include the sale of alcohol to minors and the unlawful sale of individually packaged pills, suspected to be prescription medication. The council found these not to be isolated incidents, but occurred in the context of repeated compliance concerns involving age restricted sales demonstrating a pattern of inadequate internal controls, insufficient supervision of staff and a failure to take corrective action after prior warnings.
Police Chief Mark Williams addressed concerns heard and observed regarding A’s Smoke Shop and allegations of alcohol sales to minors.
Williams said Detective Anthony Dieni received information about an investigation into the shop.
“Around the spring time of 2025, Detective Dieni was made aware of an ongoing criminal investigation involving A’s Smoke Shop involving both state and federal agencies,” Williams said. “Earlier in the school year, [East Longmeadow High School] Resource Officer Michael Healey started hearing rumors of A’s selling alcohol to underage students. SRO Healey spoke with multiple students and school personnel about these concerns and some students admitted to being able to purchase alcohol at A’s without showing an ID at all.”
Williams also said some students admitted to buying smoking paraphernalia prohibited to minors. On Oct. 31, 2025, the Longmeadow Police Department located a case of alcohol in a vehicle being driven by a teenager during a traffic stop, who claimed he had purchased it at A’s.
He added that in December 2025, a parent had come into William’s office and showed an alcoholic beverage he had just taken from his teenage daughter.
“He told me she had purchased it at A’s and that she and other kids were regularly buying alcohol from there,” Williams said. “He expressed frustration over the seeming lack of enforcement efforts, which I completely understood, but had my reasoning. I’ll make clear those decisions were solely mine on the steps that we took at that time and didn’t take.”
Williams said he spoke with Town Manager Tom Christensen about the concerns around the holiday period and in January, he was made aware of a warning letter sent by O’Shea to A’s. By that point, there were officers working with the Alcoholic Beverages Control Committee for surveillance operations. Customers going in and out were observed, in which nobody seemingly underage were spotted on that particular night.
Other incidents include multiple responses to overdoses outside of A’s as well as a physical fight outside the building. Other claims about marijuana sales at the shop could not be verified.
Williams said his request for the hearing was made because of the search warrant on Jan. 28, which was executed as the result of a joint investigation between Massachusetts State Police, the ABCC and the FBI.
East Longmeadow police officers assisted with the execution, during which Dieni found individually wrapped pills underneath the cash drawer in the register.
“The initial investigation suggests these pills are prescription medication sildenafil, commonly sold under the brand name Viagra,” Williams said. “The packaging, as well as the location of these pills, suggests to me that they are being offered for sale, which A’s is not legally licensed or authorized to do.”
Williams said he is not aware of any criminal charges filed for the pills, but added the existence of the pills could result in a criminal charge, such as possession of a class E substance with the intent to distribute.
Healey and Dieni joined the hearing and Healey said as the resource officer, he spoke to multiple students in a confidential setting regarding the purchase of alcohol at A’s.
“It was very concerning, the information that I was being told,” Healey said. “I was being told, at some points, the students would be at the smoke shop and would observe students from East Longmeadow High School going into A’s, purchasing alcohol, as well as students from other jurisdictions purchasing alcohol, as well as smoking paraphernalia that they are not allowed to possess.”
Both officers said the department was made aware that “large numbers” of East Longmeadow and Longmeadow students were making purchases at A’s.
O’Shea said the evidence dates to 2019 while under a different LLC. and doing business as Zain’s Smoke Shop, with tobacco compliance check violations continuing through 2023 until their tobacco sales permit had been revoked. He added that while it was a different business name, the paperwork still did have A’s Smoke Shop Owner Ali Sher named.
Without the town’s knowledge at that time, the ABCC did an alcohol compliance check in 2023 that resulted in a violation, which led to the current allegations. Councilor Kathleen Hill said there are currently 29 establishments with active alcohol related licenses.
She said that in the past six years, the other 28 establishments combined only committed one violation, when a package store sold to a minor without checking ID, which resulted in a warning. Hill said there have been an excess of 12 violations from A’s since 2019 and that Sher was on premises as an employee before taking over ownership.
Sher explained that he took over ownership in 2023 and said the previous owner, Zain Tahla, was having issues with the tobacco, beer and wine licenses, as well as paying off his fines. Sher said that the search warrant was for Tahla.
O’Shea asked why Tahla would still be connected to the smoke shop and Sher said that Tahla has family living nearby and paperwork from the FBI was for the previous store’s name, Zain’s Smoke Shop.
O’Shea also asked if there were any written policies and procedures on ID and compliance checks, and if anyone is turned away for being underage or presenting fraudulent ID. Sher said there are posters from the Food and Drug Administration and Amazon posted on the front door and counter displaying customers need to be 21 or over. He added that the store is still manually checking IDs and that he is working on finding a device to scan and ensure if an ID is real or not.
Sher added that he does see a lot of students come into the store with a Connecticut ID, mostly under 30 years old. He said cameras will clearly show that IDs are checked upon entering the store and that the FBI currently has the footage. Without an ID scanner, Sher said it is difficult to determine if the Connecticut IDs are fraudulent and said he would need help from police to make sure they were real.
Hill said the police could follow up, but the obligation rests on Sher’s shoulders to make sure the ID is real.
“I’m not convinced that just because they had Connecticut, fake or real IDs, that that is a defense that you can use, unfortunately,” Hill said.
O’Shea said that ID scanners have existed for quite some time and that when Sher purchased the business, there were already a number of age-related violations. He asked why Sher hasn’t acquired a device yet and he responded that he is still working on finding the right one. Councilor Anna Jones added that an ID scanner can be delivered by Amazon within two days. Councilor James Leydon told Sher he was using technology as an excuse and not as a method of verification.
“You’re falling on the sword of needing technology instead of using common sense,” Leydon said. “I just want to make that known because all this talk about ID scanners seems hollow … instead of blaming Amazon, it would be nicer to hear some accountability.”
Leydon said popping up on a federal investigation isn’t an accident.
“If you have state police and federal personnel at your door, that to me is a huge red flag, and you’re stuck talking about scanners,” Leydon said.
Despite Sher saying the agents were only there searching for Tahla and his family members, Leydon said to obtain a warrant, you need probable cause and to go through a judge, meaning they had probable cause to be there.
During discussion among the council, Hill said the establishment is a public safety hazard for the town and school system. She said every teenager in East Longmeadow is at risk if no action is taken and that teenagers can even take the products home and have them accessible to somebody even younger.
O’Shea said he agreed with Hill’s severity given the 70 pages of evidence dating back years.
Councilor Ralph Page described the situation as a troubling snowball effect.
Jones said that Sher’s demeanor in addressing the issues made it seem like he doesn’t care.
“There’s young kids coming in and buying alcohol, and the only thing you can come up with is ‘well, we ID them,’” Jones said. “I think that, as a license holder, if you can’t catch on that there’s a bunch of young looking 30 year olds from Connecticut coming into your establishment often, that doesn’t say ‘hm, why are they coming to East Longmeadow? Why do they look so young?’ I don’t think you care.”
The council ultimately voted to revoke the liquor license.
