The Baltimore Police Department is considering using a little-known "padlocking" law for only the second time in years to shut down a gas station associated with illegal drug activity, police officials said Friday.

The investigation of a Shell gas station at the corner of Frankford Avenue and Sinclair Lane in the Frankford neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore follows "numerous community complaints" about criminal activity there, said T.J. Smith, a police spokesman.

"The business has not been padlocked, but we will be compiling information to see if that is the next logical and reasonable step in trying to curb the illegal activity that is taking place at the location," Smith said.

Armed with a warrant, officers searched the gas station Wednesday and recovered "narcotics packaging material," wrote acting Northeast District Capt. Jeffrey Shorter in a post about the raid on the community forum website Nextdoor.

Smith said there were no arrests, but the investigation is continuing.

Last summer, officials padlocked a BP gas station in the 2000 block of N. Forest Park Ave. in West Baltimore that they said was the site of "pervasive illegal activity" that was "condoned by the management." Police shuttered the station in June, before the business changed hands and reopened in August with promises from the property owner of enhanced security.

The city's padlocking law hadn't been used prior to that since 2010.

Pil Ban, who owns the Frankford gas station property but not the business, said in an interview Friday that he was unaware of Wednesday's raid, but that a police detective had asked him two weeks ago for access to closed-circuit surveillance footage from the gas station and several other businesses he owns in the area. He said he told the detective at the time to go to his property and get the video from his tenants.

Ban said he rents the property to The Wills Group, which subleases the space to a property manager, who Ban only knows as "Jay." The manager, reached by phone, said he could not discuss the incident.

The Wills Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ban said he would now like to know more about what police found at the gas station and the status of their investigation.

"As a property owner, this is so serious to me," he said. "It could be a violation of the lease agreement."

Ban said he has complained to police about "growing problems and a lot of complaints from people in the community about drug-related problems," and encourages his tenants to do the same.

Ban said he would like to hire a security guard for the property, but he can't afford one. He said he understands "police cannot stop everything" but should do more, considering he pays "all of these taxes to the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland."

"I just want to increase the patrols," he said. "I am encouraging my tenant to talk to Baltimore police any time you see suspicious activities like selling [drugs], but I think it's not easy. Tenants complain that when they call police, they come late and when they come, the sellers run away."

In his Nextdoor post, Shorter urged residents to "keep your safety in mind when patronizing places where drug activity has been reported."

Gas stations have been the scene of various crimes in Baltimore in recent months. Police released a video Thursday of the fatal shooting Wednesday night of 21-year-old Deontay McKnight following an alleged drug deal at a gas station in the 5100 block of York Road in the city's Radnor-Winston neighborhood.

In discussing that shooting Thursday, Smith said residents should not have to fear for their safety when pumping gas.

"We can't continue to tolerate it," Smith said. "As we've been collectively saying — the commissioner, myself, and everyone else in the city — we can't allow it to continue to be user-friendly for bad guys. They can't interrupt our opportunity to get gas or a snack at a gas station, and that's what they were clearly doing — because they're out there selling drugs and they're out there with guns and they're out there shooting at each other.

"You almost run out of words to describe this nonsense," he said.

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