Large-scale decoy operation revealed owners illegally sold flavored tobacco at nearly a dozen smoke shops across the Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO (March 5, 2025) — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced today that his office secured a $250,000 judgment that requires two smoke shop owners to surrender all illegal flavored tobacco products. The City’s lawsuit, filed against Basserty Alriashi, Muneer Al Osfur, and various corporations they operate, alleged the owners violated state and local laws by operating without a tobacco permit in San Francisco and selling illegal flavored tobacco products at 11 stores in the Bay Area.
The stipulated injunction, approved by the San Francisco Superior Court on March 3, 2025, requires the Defendants to surrender all illegal flavored tobacco products to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) or a local police station and visibly display the California Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) “California’s Flavored Tobacco Products Retail Law Fact Sheet” at all of their retail businesses. Defendants must allow inspectors from CDTFA, CDPH, and any local public or law enforcement agency access to their businesses. The stipulated judgment also requires the Defendants to pay $250,000 in civil penalties and attorneys’ fees.
“These smoke shop owners blatantly disregarded laws established to protect young people from the harms of tobacco use,” said City Attorney Chiu. “I appreciate DPH’s enforcement efforts and partnership that put them on our radar. Not only were they selling banned flavored tobacco products, but they didn’t even have a San Francisco tobacco permit. I am proud of our team of investigators who executed a decoy operation that exposed illegal flavored tobacco sales in the defendants’ smoke shops across the Bay Area.”
“We know that flavored tobacco products encourage new users and promotes youth initiation, leading to lifelong negative health outcomes,” said Health Officer and Director of Population Health Dr. Susan Philip. “I want to thank our health inspectors and the City Attorney’s Office for promoting the public interest in ensuring businesses operate in compliance with our health laws as well as holding bad actors accountable.”
Background
The proliferation of flavored e-cigarettes has threatened decades of progress in reducing youth tobacco use, and the consequences of hooking a new generation on tobacco and nicotine products are dire. Nicotine exposure during adolescence can harm the developing brain and adversely impact learning, memory, and attention.
Flavored e-cigarettes are the most used tobacco product among youth in the United States because of the tobacco industry marketing a variety of flavors. In 2023, 2.8 million U.S. middle and high school students, or 10 percent of high school students and 4.6 percent of middle school students, reported currently using e-cigarettes. In 2021, 20.1 percent of San Francisco’s high school students had tried e-cigarettes, and 7.9 percent reported currently using e-cigarettes.
Due to the alarming public health risks of flavored tobacco products, California prohibited the sale of flavored tobacco products. San Francisco enacted laws that further restrict the sale or distribution of flavored tobacco products as well as e-cigarettes.
Defendants Basserty Alriashi and Muneer Al Osfur operated “Bass Gift Shop,” a smoke shop at 5196 Mission Street in San Francisco, until they vacated the property in August 2024. Bass Gift Shop sold tobacco products without the required tobacco permit from the San Francisco Department of Health (DPH), and sold tobacco products banned in San Francisco, including flavored nicotine and tobacco products and e-cigarettes that lack Food and Drug Administration pre-market approval.
Since September 2023, DPH repeatedly found prohibited tobacco products for sale at Bass Gift Shop, and issued various notices, including a Complaint, a Notice of Initial Determination, and three Notices of Violation. The DPH Director issued a Hearing Order in March 2024, ordering the Defendants to cease all tobacco sales and remove all tobacco products from the premises, and to make the smoke shop accessible to DPH inspectors. The Defendants defied the Hearing Order and continued their unlawful business practices, including selling an illegal flavored e-cigarette to a DPH decoy in May 2024 and refusing to allow DPH to conduct an inspection in June 2024.
Upon determining that Defendants collectively owned and operated ten other brick-and-mortar smoke shops in the Bay Area, investigators from the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office executed a decoy operation and purchased illegal flavored tobacco products from the other businesses in October 2024.
The decoy investigators were able to purchase banned flavored tobacco products from:
- “Exotic Vapes” located at 711 Kains Avenue in San Bruno
- “Exotic Puff n Stuff” located at 484 San Mateo Avenue in San Bruno
- “Grand Tobacco Shop” located at 338 Grand Avenue in South San Francisco
- “Diamond Gift Shop” located at 6198 Mission Street in Daly City
- “420 Glass and Gift Shop” located at 2502 Telegraph Ave in Oakland
- “Smoke and Gift Shop” located at 646 Hegenberger Road in Oakland
- “Fast Fill Gas and Market” located at 449 Hegenberger Road in Oakland
- “Cigarettes Cheaper!” located at 20930 Mission Boulevard in Hayward
- “Smoke Shop” located at 6193 Santa Teresa Boulevard in San Jose
- “Delauers Gift Shop” located at 1412 Park Street in Alameda
In September 2024, San Francisco filed a lawsuit on behalf of the People of the State of California and the People of the City and County of San Francisco, alleging violations of San Francisco’s ban on flavored tobacco products and e-cigarettes as well as violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law.
The case is People of the State of California and People of the City and County of San Francisco v. Bass Gift Shop SF, et al., San Francisco Superior Court, No. CGC-24-618016. The stipulated judgment and injunction can be found here.
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