Smoke shop employees arrested and kratom packages seized after two Ole Miss student deaths
Two smoke shop employees have been arrested on felony drug charges following a police raid near the University of Mississippi, days after two students were found dead in separate incidents with packages of kratom found at the scenes.
Officers seized more than 500 units of kratom, THC cartridges, gummies and other suspected narcotics during a raid on Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store, roughly a mile from the Ole Miss campus.
Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Mohamed, 18, from Oxford, were booked for possession of Schedule I controlled substances with intent to distribute. Authorities noted that the store’s owner, 40-year-old Amer Alowdi, fled the country after being indicted for narcotics trafficking in 2022.
Freshman Aidan Hamilton, 18, and junior Robert Strang, 20, were both found dead Monday. Though officials have not confirmed a direct link between the shop and the fatalities, the Lafayette County Metro Narcotics Unit previously disclosed that “packaged Kratom sold from a retail store” was discovered at both scenes.
Strang, a Phi Delta Theta fraternity member from Atlanta, Georgia, was found at an off-campus home, student newspaperThe Daily Mississippian reported. Hamilton, from Colorado, was reportedly discovered at a male dormitory on campus. Emergency services responded to a “possible OD” at a dorm on the day the bodies were discovered, according to a Lafayette County dispatch recording obtained by WMC Action 5 News.
“They do not believe the subject is breathing — trying to start CPR over the phone,” a voice said on the recording. “I believe they’re still trying to get somebody in the dorms to do, or in the building to do CPR.”
Investigators are awaiting expedited toxicology results to determine what caused the students’ deaths and what substances were involved.
The narcotics unit stated that it did “not have confirmed information indicating that kratom or any other substance was a contributing factor in either death.”
A representative from the American Kratom Association, an advocacy group representing the industry, told Fox News that bad actors often deceptively market illicit or chemically modified products under the guise of natural kratom. He expressed condolences to the families and the Ole Miss community while cautioning against attributing the fatalities to any specific product before official toxicology results were finalized.
“We’re not defending a product involved in these deaths because no one yet knows what that product, if any, caused them,” the representative, Mac Haddow, said.
Kratom, an opioid-like substance, is legal in parts of Mississippi but remains restricted within Lafayette County, where Ole Miss is located.
The Lafayette County Metro Narcotics Unit said that “Kratom has been prohibited from possession, distribution, and sale within the City of Oxford since 2019.”
The investigation is ongoing and more arrests could follow, according to officials.
“Our message is direct: if you choose to illegally sell these substances in our community, expect law enforcement to come looking for you,” investigators said Friday. “We will investigate. We will obtain warrants.
