A Chattanooga convenience store that had gained a reputation for ignoring rampant drug dealing on its premises has been declared a “public nuisance” by a Hamilton County criminal judge.

Judge Rebecca Stern signed the order this morning relating to the Discount Food Market at 2413 Fourth Ave., about a year after the district attorney’s office filed a complaint with the state and asked a judge to padlock the building.

Chattanooga Police and the FBI already had been heavily monitoring the store, located close to the East Lake Courts public housing site, in an effort to catch drug dealers who had come to regard the store as a safe haven for doing their business.

Discount Food Market will be allowed to remain open, but the owners are not allowed to let non-employees to loiter for more than 20 minutes, and they must install a modern video surveillance system and keep tapes of activities for authorities to view at any time, the order states.

See tomorrow’s Times Free Press for complete details.

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