HOPATCONG: According to Hopatcong police, if you want drugs, Castaways Tavern is the place to be.
It’s also the place you stand a pretty good chance of getting caught for having or dealing them.
Several agencies worked together on a month-and-a-half-long investigation of cocaine being distributed at the Maxim Drive bar, leading to 13 arrests, police said.
No employees were arrested or accused of drug activity, but the bar is “being investigated by the Department of Criminal Justice for the blatant dealing of narcotics in their establishment,” Hopatcong police said in a news release Thursday.
Police also said the DCJ is investigating the bar for having “less-than-premium alcohol in bottles that were labeled premium alcohol” — bottles of Jim Beam whiskey without actual Jim Beam.
NJ Advance Media has left a message with the DCJ seeking comment on its investigation.
Update 6 p.m.: Castaways owner Paul Bogensberger, reached late Thursday afternoon, said his only objection to the information released by Hopatcong police is the assertion about the alcohol bottles. He said he doesn’t water down or replace alcohol in liquor bottles, and that he was told by the state Alcoholic Beverage Control it doesn’t have any issue with any Jim Beam bottle from his establishment.
Hopatcong police — along with Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Jerome Neidhardt, the Morris County Prosecutors Office, Roxbury Police Department, members of the DCJ’s Alcohol Beverage Control Unit, and Sussex County Sheriff’s Office K-9 handler Kieran McMorrow — concluded their investigation Wednesday, according to the news release.
“During the course of this investigation undercover officers were in Castaways bar watching cocaine deals inside the bar, right outside of the bar and in vehicles parked in the parking lot,” it said.
The 13 people arrested were each charged with some combination of possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine or distribution of cocaine.
Authorities seized $900 in cash, two vehicles, 72 bags of cocaine, and various quantities of marijuana, police said.
An employee of Castaways who picked up the phone Thursday afternoon said the bar’s manager would be available to speak later in the day.
In 2013, the owner of the nearby River Styx Grille admitted leading a heroin ring, and selling nearly 2,000 folds of heroin over the course of just a few weeks. He sold the restaurant, which has since reopened under another name.
