Tampa nightclub closed after police make drug arrests

A sweep by Tampa police into the Char-Pal Lounge on Busch Boulevard late Thursday led to the arrests of six employees and four patrons on drug dealing and possession charges.

And more arrests are expected, police said.

An attorney for the bar showed up during the sweep and voluntarily closed down the lounge, said police Lt. Ken Morman. He said the owners will keep the bar closed until another management team is in place. Just when it will re-open is unknown.

Police got a tip in July that some employees and customers were buying and selling narcotics at the lounge, located just west of 40th Street across from the towering Montu roller coaster at Busch Gardens.

Since then, police used a confidential informant to buy cocaine and marijuana from bar employees on several occasions, arrest affidavits say. Police entered the bar late Thursday night armed with a search warrant and arrest warrants for the employees and patrons. Those who were there were taken into custody. Police also is seized several guns.

Those who were charged, but weren't there are still being sought, Morman said.

Among those charged was Dominique Antwon Jenkins, 18, of 6702 N. 31st. St., Tampa, who is a disc jockey at the club, and Willie Bobby Jenkins, 34, of 4010 E. Clifton St., Tampa, the bar's manager, according to arrest records at the jail.

The bar remains under investigation, Morman said, and detectives are trying to determine if the bar's owners were involved.

"We want to see if it's a case of willful blindness," he said, "or if the owners really didn't know what was going on."

Agents with the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco also were involved in the investigation, said Morman, and are looking at any licensing issues that may result.

The bar has some prominence in Tampa's colorful organized crime history.

In the 1970s, it was where two Lucchese crime family gangsters from New York came to intimidate a low-level mobster who was slow in paying a gambling bet. The scene was included in the book "Wiseguy" and depicted in Martin Scorsese's film, "Goodfellas."