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10 Busted in Citywide Synthetic Marijuana Ring, Feds Say

By Ben Fractenberg | September 16, 2015 1:44pm
 NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton visits a warehouse in The Bronx where synthetic marijuana was processed after 10 people were indicted for importing and then selling drug in the city, Sept. 16, 2015.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton visits a warehouse in The Bronx where synthetic marijuana was processed after 10 people were indicted for importing and then selling drug in the city, Sept. 16, 2015.
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NYPD

MANHATTAN — Federal and city investigators nabbed 10 people for their role in a citywide synthetic marijuana ring, selling packets of the drug with names like “Psycho,” “AK-47,” and “Blue Caution,” the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

The crew imported about 1,300 kilograms of the dried synthetic drug, also known as “K2” or "spice," from China, which they divided into about 260,000 packets that sold at about $5 a piece at dozens of stores and bodegas throughout the city starting last September, federal prosecutors charge.

“Today, we launch an aggressive assault on a public health crisis that is reaching epidemic proportions: the scourge of dangerous new drugs that are killing people and sending thousands upon thousands to emergency rooms in New York City and around the country,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.  

“Despite sometimes being called synthetic marijuana, this is not marijuana — it can have unpredictably severe and even lethal effects.”

The chemical compound is produced in China and then shipped to the United States as a powder. 

The powder is then mixed with chemical solvents and added flavors to make a liquid that is sprayed onto tea leaves resembling marijuana, according to the feds. 

Bharara said in prepared statement that China "is becoming to Spice what Colombia has been to cocaine."  

The drugs were processed and packaged in a large facility on Light Street in The Bronx, federal prosecutors said, and then distributed to warehouses controlled by the crew.

K2 use has been most pronounced in East Harlem at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, where people from nearby shelters and drug treatment centers tend to congregate. 

Police raided five bodegas in the neighborhood in July and seized nearly 8,000 packets of the drug. 

The City Council is also planning to stiffen penalties against bodegas found selling the drug. Stores found selling the drug could lose their tobacco license or be closed under proposed legislation.  

The men indicted in the conspiracy were Murad Nasser Kassim, 29, Nageab Saeed, 26, Walide Saeed, 30, Mohamed Saeed, 31, Mohamed Abdullah Salem, 47, Fikri Yahwa Nagi, 31, Abdullah Deiban, 35, Faris Nasser Kassim, 32, Mohamed Almatheel and Hamid Moshref.

They were charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics are facing up to 20 years in prison.

The men were expected to be arraigned in Manhattan Federal Court Wednesday afternoon.