sábado, 4 de mayo de 2013

Four people arrested, $1 million seized in synthetic marijuana bust - Bloomington Pantagraph

BLOOMINGTON — Four Twin City people have been arrested after an investigation by Bloomington and Champaign police led to the seizure of a large amount of synthetic marijuana and about $1 million from three Global Tobacco stores, police said.

The Operation Storefront investigation culminated Wednesday with the arrests of Ghassan Qahwaji, 48, Ghiath Qahwaji, 39, and Hani Al-Maghayred, 35, all of Bloomington, and Hicham Rharabi, 32, of Normal.

They are charged with delivery of a controlled substance analog and/or delivery of a controlled substance. Each must post $20,025 to be released, except for Al-Maghayred, who must post $10,025.

The arrests followed a more-than-six-month investigation into the distribution of synthetic drugs, specifically synthetic cannabinoids sold under the brand name Blue Heaven, police said. It included undercover officers buying the drug at the stores at 614 N. Main St. and 2303 E. Washington St., both in Bloomington, and a store in Champaign.

The searches of the stores and the suspects' homes yielded large amounts of drugs packaged for sale and about $1 million in cash, police said.

Assisting Bloomington and Champaign police in the searches and arrests were the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Illinois Department of Revenue, Illinois State Police Task Force 6 and the Normal Police Department.

The Bloomington Global Tobacco stores in April were part of a voluntary compliance and awareness operation through which police seized synthetic drugs worth nearly $39,500 at the two stores. At that time, store managers were required to sign an affidavit acknowledging the seized items.

Despite the earlier, voluntary effort, "these guys were selling it right over the counter," said Bloomington police spokesman Dave White, noting that some of the drugs were in display cases.

No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario