T-shirt shop raided for heroin, twice

Albuquerque, NM {KRQE} - Albuquerque Police raided a custom shirt store that's popular with kids, and it’s the second time they've hit the place in less than a year. Detectives believe the owners are peddling more than t-shirts out of the shop, but they haven’t found what they're looking for.

Mr. C's Tees serves a lot of kids in the neighborhood, making custom clothing for the youngsters, but cops say they are serving up more than just shirts and hats. Mr. C's has been in business for almost three decades. Denise Chavez, the owner's daughter, said there is nothing illegal happening inside the shop on Central near the river.

“Nothing at all you don't stay in business for 26 years if you are selling narcotics,” said Chavez.

But, APD narcotics officers have raided the shirt shop twice in the past year, including this morning, looking for drugs, specifically heroin. The copy of the search warrant they left at the shop said an informant bought heroin from the store owner a few days ago, but cops found nothing today or last May when they raided the store.

“Then the police officer told my father, either he is selling drugs out of here or he has a lot of enemies that are calling and reporting illegal activity here,” said Chavez.

Chavez said the first raid left the shop in shambles and almost took her father's business down with it, “It took everything we had last time to rebuild the business from what they destroyed.”

Now, she's worried this search will cost them again.

“People pass by and see the things that are going on and they start to believe what is going on, by no means is it true at all.”

She said her family is suing the police department for the raids. No one from the APD could comment about the case. Chavez said she's worried that even though the cops haven't found drugs, that they'll keep coming back.

“To be honest with you the people that we fear now are the police officers the Albuquerque Police officers.”

No one from the police department could tell me if they still suspect drugs are being peddled out of the t-shirt shop. The owner of the shop has a clean record and hasn't been in trouble according to online court records.