Trial date set for Oxford smoke shop employees in synthetic kratom bust

OXFORD, Miss. (WMC) - A federal trial date has been set for the Oxford smoke shop employees following a synthetic kratom bust earlier this year.

Yahya Mosleh and Islam Mosleh face federal charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

A judge has set December 14-18 for their trial in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

They have until November 30 to reach a plea agreement.

In September, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics agents sent a confidential informant into Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford to investigate the alleged sales of illegal substances, according to the arrest affidavit.

The informant asked if the store sold “7-OH Kratom-based pills.”

Records show the clerk said yes before warning the informant to “be careful taking the pills, because people are dying from them.”

Oxford police then executed a search warrant at the store, and 500 units of kratom and kratom-like products were seized. An assortment of “THC cartridges, gummies, pre-rolls, and other suspected THC substances” was also recovered.

According to court affidavits, that raid stemmed from the suspected overdose deaths of University of Mississippi students Aidan Hamilton and Robert Strang on Monday, September 21.

Hamilton reportedly purchased “Smax” Pseudo-DHM tablets, a synthetic kratom product, at Puffs twice before his death.

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