Bay Area Store Sold Meth to Customers

A San Francisco corner store is at the center of a pretty stark accusation — that it stopped acting like a convenience store and started acting like a retail drug counter. The city sued The Corner Store at 401 Eddy Street this week, saying the shop in the Tenderloin sold methamphetamine, marijuana, and illegal tobacco products right out of the business. The point of the lawsuit is simple: shut it down for a year, hit the operators with penalties, and make the case that this was not just a nuisance property but an active part of the neighborhood drug trade. ### What exactly is the city alleging? The complaint names Discount Markeet 2 Inc., doing business as Corner Store, plus Abdulrahman Almehdhar and Mustafa Mehdar Almehdhar, along with the property owner and landlord entities tied to the site. The city says the business at Eddy and Leavenworth contributed to criminal activity in the Tenderloin and violated state drug, nuisance, unfair competition, and local health laws. (sfgate.com) That matters because this is not framed as one bad clerk or one isolated sale — it is framed as the store itself being the operation. ### Why did this case move now? Turns out the lawsuit is built on a longer paper trail. The city says complaints about illegal tobacco sales started surfacing in 2024, and a Department of Public Health undercover inspector bought an illegal flavored vape there in April 2024. Then came the bigger escalation — a November 2025 joint inspection involving police, public health, and the state tax agency. That raid is what gave the city the hard inventory list it is now using in court. (media.api.sf.gov) ### What did investigators say they found? The most concrete detail is the seizure list. Investigators said they recovered 48.1 grams of meth, 4.68 pounds of marijuana, a ghost gun, illegal tobacco products, digital scales, small plastic baggies, and glass pipes used for meth and cocaine. Basically, that is the difference between “a troubled store” and “a store the city says was set up to support drug sales.” The scales and baggies are the part that makes the allegation feel especially direct. (sfgate.com) ### Was the store already known to police? Yes. The city says San Francisco police responded a dozen times to incidents at or around the store between March 2023 and November 2025, including theft, vandalism, fights, and arrests. That does not prove every call was tied to drug sales, but it helps explain why officials are treating the property as a recurring public-safety problem instead of a one-off bust. (sfgate.com) ### Why does the Tenderloin context matter so much? Because this is really a neighborhood-governance story as much as a drug case. The Tenderloin has been the focus of repeated city efforts to break up open-air drug markets, reduce late-night nuisance activity, and pressure businesses that officials say profit from the street economy around them. In that frame, a corner store accused of selling meth behind the counter is not just another criminal case — it is a symbol of how formal retail and illicit street trade can blur together. (ktvu.com) ### Is this part of a broader crackdown? Very much so. Earlier actions by the City Attorney targeted Tenderloin convenience stores accused of fronting for gambling, drug activity, and stolen-goods trading. The new case even connects one Corner Store owner to SF Discount Market, another Tenderloin store the city sued in 2024 and says a court ordered closed while that case proceeds. So this is not a fresh theory — it is the next storefront in an existing campaign. (sf.gov) ### What happens next? The city is asking the court for injunctions, civil penalties, and a one-year shutdown. If the judge agrees, the store could be forced dark while the case plays out and while any cleanup or compliance steps happen. The catch is that lawsuits like this are about disruption, not instant neighborhood transformation — closing one store does not erase the surrounding drug market by itself. (sf.gov) ### Bottom line? This case matters because San Francisco is trying to prove that some Tenderloin storefronts are not merely adjacent to street crime — they are part of the machinery. If that argument holds up in court, the city gets a stronger tool for going after businesses it says are helping keep the local drug economy alive. (media.api.sf.gov) (sfgate.com)