908 Chapel St. Gryo King’s moving in, Chapel Smoke Shop’s all gone, Chipotle’s still here. Chapel Smoke Shop’s signs remain — even though the storefront’s interior has been stripped bare — a month after a law-enforcement raid turned up 36 pounds of illegal cannabis products at the Green-facing retailer. That smoke-shop-in-name-only is located at 908 Chapel St., in one of the ground-floor retail spaces of the former Chapel Square Mall building. As of Monday, the name of the store remains emblazoned in green letters on the Chapel Street side of the building, right in between Chipotle and a new business to-be called Gyro King. The Chapel Smoke Shop store itself, however, remains closed, with a yellow sign from the Health Department taped to the front door reading, “This Establishment Is Officially CLOSED To The Sale Of Tobacco And Smoking Products.” That “CLOSED” sign has been up since April 7, when city police officers, federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and inspectors from the the city’s Health Department, the city’s Building Department, and the state’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) raided the smoke shop. They wound up finding “458 individual units of cannabis containing products totaling 36 pounds of cannabis flower material,” according to a DCP spokesperson. This constituted violations of four state statutes related to selling cannabis without a license. (While Connecticut has legalized adult-use cannabis, only state-permitted dispensaries are allowed to sell such products. Chapel Smoke Shop does not have a license to legally sell cannabis.) Meanwhile, a look through the front glass windows of the store on Monday reveals that the Chapel Smoke Shop is completely empty — not just of smoking products, but also of counters and shelves and other furniture, save a trash can, a mop, and a broom. State business records show that a company called Chapel Convenience LLC is registered to the address 908 Chapel St. That holding company is controlled by Aqib Al-Amin and Anell Chowdhury. A representative from Chapel Convenience LLC and a representative from the property’s landlord, an affiliate of the PMC Property Group, did not respond to requests for comment before the publication time of this story. The front door of Chapel Smoke Shop. The post Chapel Smoke Shop Disappears appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less