ALL — At vaping shops across the city of Allen, officers collected evidence and escorted the business owners out in handcuffs.

In a coordinated attack, they attacked nine locations simultaneously.

If you happened to drive down Main Street, you probably would have noticed them with flashing lights in the shopping malls.

“It’s being sold right before our eyes,” said Police Chief Steve Dye.

Dye says all of the affected stores – more than a third of all vaping shops within Allen city limits – were caught marketing and selling products containing illegal amounts of THC, a compound derived from marijuana.

“We did several rounds of undercover operations where we sent in minors as well, and many of them were able to purchase the THC for minors. Then we started testing these products, and we found that the vast majority of these products were well over 0.3%,” he said.

Since 2019, products containing up to 0.3% THC – a third of 1% – have been legally allowed to be sold as hemp in Texas.

Dye said state labs have found stores in Allen selling items with contaminant levels above 15 percent, and in one case as high as 78 percent.

“We found that the potency of these THC products was even more powerful than we ever imagined,” he said.

The crackdown in Allen appears to be in sharp contrast to decriminalization efforts in Texas cities like Austin and Denton, where voters have approved measures that prevent police from filing charges for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

CBS News Texas asked Dye why targeting THC sales in Allen was a priority.

“I can tell you, nine out of 10 citizens have told me they are concerned about these tobacco shops,” he said. “I think that should be a concern for all of us. When you go into these shops, you see that a lot of these products are marketed specifically to young people. They look like candy. They look like chips, they look like soda.”

Photos from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which assisted in the raid, show a bag of chips labelled “Doweedos”, cookies labelled “Trips Ahoy” and candy labelled “Medicated Skittles”.

“We found THC levels in the high double digits, over 60, 65 percent. If you think about it, that’s almost a toxic level of THC. And is that what anyone expects?” asked DEA Special Agent in Charge Eduardo Chavez.

He believes that customers could easily believe they are buying something legal.

“These aren’t the days of the dark street corner, hand in hand with a stranger buying drugs with, you know, exciting music playing in the background, right?” he said. “There’s a consumer-business relationship. There’s a cash register. It smells good.”

However, Chavez says that the THC content of these products is not very consistent and can be much higher than stated on the packaging.

If customers don’t know what is legal, how can officials ensure that shop owners know?

Some admitted to knowing, Dye said

“When we were there undercover, they would tell us what products were popular and what would get you high more than other products… Sometimes they would even tell us, ‘Hey, make sure you hide this in your car so you don’t get arrested if the police stop you.'”

Dye doesn’t believe that was the intention of the state’s legislators when they legalized hemp, and he hopes to work with them to make a change.

“We need to scale it back so that products with health benefits are still legal. That is not our concern. But these illegal products that are once again being marketed and sold to our youth? We need to stamp that out again,” he said.