Cops cracking down on Roxbury liquor store they say delivers booze to underage Northeastern students

Boston Police say Brothers Liquor on Shawmut Avenue has become the go-to place for Northeastern students looking to liquor up - only they don't even have to go there because a quick phone call will summon a car loaded with alcohol.

A sting operation on Feb. 4 snared a deliveryman for Brothers Liquors delivering $197 worth of alcohol to an underage Northeastern student working with police, Boston and Northeastern detectives told the Boston Licensing Board at a hearing today, adding they also cited the store for failing to keep an accurate log of its deliveries or copies of signatures for people who signed for liquor deliveries. Detectives also told the board a park next to the store is littered with empty nips and paper bags from store customers.

The board decides Thursday what action to take related to the sting. Board member Michael Connolly told the store's lawyer that if it were up to him, "You're looking at a minimum two-week suspension, and beyond that, you may be lucky if you're still in business."

Detectives from both Boston and Northeastern police said they set up the sting after a freshman wound up drunk and unconscious in a locked dorm bathroom thanks to liquor she said she got from Brothers. After she came to, a Northeastern detective said, she spilled the beans: When she arrived on campus and asked where she could get a fake ID to secure alcohol, dormmates and people across campus told her not to bother - just call Brothers' delivery line.

Boston Det. Daniel Keeler acknowledged that after the Brothers delivery man met the undercover student at Davenport and Columbus, he did ask for ID first, but said that when the student said she didn't have one but that a friend would be coming down with one, he began unloading the liquor.

Keeler said that of all the liquor stores in District D-4, "this is the only establishment that I've had this type of a problem with" and that it's become an issue of "safety vs. profit."

Det. Daniel Conley said D-4 police were surprised to learn in December that the board had agreed to let the store begin selling nips and single servings of beer and that since then, the store has become a haven for drinkers who down their alcohol in the park next door. He said the sales, coupled with the lack of records, means the store has become "nothing short of a nightmare."