ST. LOUIS • Police and federal agents made on Wednesday a series of arrests here, in Chicago and on the East Coast in an investigation of illegal cigarette and synthetic marijuana sales.
In all, 35 people were indicted on May 24 on various charges, including conspiring to traffic in contraband cigarettes, conspiring to distribute controlled substances and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
About 30 of those had been arrested as of early Wednesday afternoon without incident, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware said.
Twenty-three locations, including stores and the homes of their owners/operators . Among those markets are the Northway Market, 5590 West Florissant Avenue, and Six Stars Market, 8701 Riverview Boulevard, both in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, and Mally’s Market, 7445 West Florissant Avenue in Country Club Hills.
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Some of those indicted bought cigarettes in ºüÀêÊÓƵ using convenience stores they owned or ran “to create the appearance of legitimate cigarette purchases,†prosecutors said, and then sold them in high cigarette tax areas like Chicago and New Jersey without paying taxes there. The profits were then laundered through the store accounts, they said.
A handful of the stores sold synthetic drugs, often known as K2, prosecutors said. Conspirators both bought drugs and manufactured them using chemicals imported from China, Ware said.
Ware said the conspirators used slick packaging and names such as “Sexy Monkey†to lure customers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Mantovani said that they also sold the drug in single-use, condiment-style paper cups, designed as cheaply as possible to sell to “people who were already addicted to this stuff.â€
“This is just drug-dealing,†he said.
Mantovani said that investigators had “no direct evidence†linking those indicted to a of , but said that they were selling the “exact same kind of synthetic drugs that these people were OD'ing on.â€
Mantovani stressed that while the drugs are often referred to as synthetic cannabinoids, that is only because they target cannabinoid receptors, not because they are similar to marijuana.
“This isn’t fake weed,†he said, calling the drugs “thousands of times more dangerous than anything having to do with ... marijuana.â€
In a statement, James P. Shroba, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ºüÀêÊÓƵ office, said that DEA was committed to dismantling “these types of unprincipled business operations that are profiting from human frailty. Synthetic drugs that are sold as purportedly legal substitutes for cannabis and stimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, are neither legal nor safe. These substances were never intended for human consumption and only serve to satisfy the avarice of the seller.â€
ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area residents indicted include: Mohammed Almuttan, 35; Rami Almuttan, 33; Hisham Mutan, 41; Saddam Mutan, 24; Mazin Abdelsalam, 38; Yadgar Barzanji, 47; Wafaa Alwan, 50; Hayder Al Fatli, 40; Mahajir Naz, 32; Talal Abuajaj, 23; Basem Hamdan, 57; Zainal Saleh, 29; and Ibrahim Awad, 39.
Saad Al Mallak, 30, of Dittmer; Hassan Abdelatif, 29, of Collinsville; and Maher Hamed, 33, of Swansea, were also indicted.