Authorities raid a dozen vape shops throughout Butler County

BUTLER COUNTY, Pa. — Channel 11 was in Butler Wednesday while State Police joined Butler, Jackson Township, Adam’s Township and Cranberry Township police in one of a dozen vape shop raids.

According to Butler County DA Richard Goldinger, the raids are an effort to crack down on the sale of suspected illegal THC.

Orion Roberts said, “We knew it was going to be happening. I guess I just wasn’t really aware of the amount that was out there, like how bad it is really with the amount of drugs that are being sold to kids.”

Butler County’s District Attorney says there were a total of 31 search warrants executed Wednesday throughout Butler County. The warrants included searches of 12 vape shops and one house.

Goldinger says the warrants were based on investigations where informants and undercover officers bought illegal products from local shops.

“I know a lot of people that go to those vape shops and I know that the vape shops sell things that they shouldn’t be selling; everyone kind of knows that,” Roberts said.

Goldinger says lab tests found those products contained concentrations of Delta-9 THC that are 38 times higher than what’s legally allowed to be sold in Pennsylvania.

Our cameras captured investigators collecting bags of evidence from three locations. A Rollies along North Main Street, a tobacco Hut on New Castle Road and another Tobacco Hut location on Hansen Avenue, where Larry Schmidt was Wednesday.