Meth Sales Lead to Western Avenue Bar's License Suspension

CHICAGO, IL — A Western Avenue bar will be closed for at least a month after police found illegal activity including the sale of methamphetamine during a recent raid.

Bar 118, 11848 S. Western Ave., has received a 30-day license suspension from the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection agency after the Chicago Police Department conducted a search warrant on Friday, 19th Ward Alderman Matt O’Shea wrote in an email to area residents on Monday.

An order from the Local Liquor Control Commissioner suspending the license instructs that the business and license holder Chandler Jones Inc. be “immediately closed and prohibited from conducting the business of selling alcohol.”

Any continued operation, according to the order, would “immediately threaten the welfare of the community.”

It says the license holder has “routinely engaged” in the sale and delivery of cannabis, methamphetamine and cocaine.

“The sales of controlled substances have been open, notorious and commonplace,” the order reads.

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Police arrested four people during a raid on Friday, including a bar employee who is a convicted felon and was found in possession of a firearm, according to O’Shea. Three bar patrons were also charged with possession of a controlled substance.

O’Shea says he has been working with neighborhood residents on complaints made in relation to the business, which sits on the edge of the alderman’s ward and borders Blue Island.

He says he has already asked the city attorney to begin the process to permanently revoke the bar’s license.