San Francisco city attorneys are working to shutter four Tenderloin convenience stores they said have been operating as illegal casinos and trading posts for drugs and stolen merchandise, alleging that the businesses are fueling crime in the long-troubled neighborhood.
Through a series of lawsuits filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, lawyers described how the businesses allegedly provided a refuge for people to gamble and to buy and sell drugs and drug paraphernalia, with City Attorney David Chiu describing them as the “Wild West.”
In addition to candy and sodas, the stores allegedly sold merchandise crucial for the drug trade, including digital scales, glass pipes and small plastic baggies in plain view of all customers…