Just 12 days after the Gulf Shores City Council approved a conditional business license for Cohiba Dunes, Gulf Shores police arrested eight people at the club’s back door on Feb. 24 at 3:41 a.m.

The arrests were for public intoxication and one of those was also arrested for possession of cocaine.

“They observed some suspicious activity during a routine patrol and after further investigation it led to the arrest of the suspects,” Public Information Officer Det. Carl Wittstruck said. “Apparently, there was somebody else in the car asleep and they subsequently made two more arrests.”

At a Feb. 12 council meeting, the council voted to renew the bar’s business license with 17 conditions attached, but one of those was changed at the request of the owner. Co-owner Dan Alexander asked the council to allow the bar to stay open until 3 a.m. while the club works on ways to attract customers earlier in the evening, including adding food items and a happy hour.

Related Article: Cohiba Dunes owner states they cannot exist without being open until 3AM

“As of right now we have no business until that one to three o’clock,” co-owner Dan Alexander said. “If you take a picture at midnight, there’s seven people in the bar. At 1 a.m. there are 85 to 100. That’s all we’re asking for and we want to get this plan in place. We want to get it all groomed up, go through the year, see how it works and hopefully, it will help us.”

The bar was under a conditional license for 2023 and Deputy Police Chief Dan Netemeyer said despite the conditions placed on the bar in the past year, there were still violations.

“The incidents we talked about at the Jan. 22 meeting were between the two and three o’clock hour,” Mayor Pro Tem Philip Harris said. “Several of which were outside of your business in the parking lot but potentially customers in and out of the back door.”

Netemeyer recommended the 2 a.m. closing hour and clearing of the property but it was removed in the 3-1 council vote on Feb. 12 allowing Cohiba to stay open until 3 a.m. Harris, Councilman Steve Jones and Councilman Gary Sinak voted for the conditional license and Councilman Joe Garris voted against it. Mayor Robert Craft and Councilman Jason Dyken were not present for the Feb. 12 vote.

Arrested on Feb. 24 were Maxim Poclit, possession of cocaine and Victor Tanurcov, 37, Vitalie Duhlicher, 38, Maxim Burduja, 31, Maxim Ursu, 34, Vadimr Barbos, 36, Davis Wilson, 25 and Marlyn Fields, 27 were all arrested for public intoxication. All have Gulf Shores addresses.