Wrens vape store raided, officers seize marijuana
Wrens Police department raided a recently opened downtown vape and tobacco store investigators say was selling illegal marijuana products to teenagers.
A spokesman for the department said that investigators received information in early December that Wrens Tabacco and Vape, located at 201 S. Main Street, was selling illegal narcotics.
On Friday, Jan. 26, just after 5 p.m., officers executed a search warrant at the store, arrested Ali AlGaadi, 45, of Jamaica, NY with three counts of sale of schedule 1 narcotic, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a schedule one narcotic with intent to distribute.
Among the evidence seized are approximately 1.07 lbs of loose high-grade marijuana, 4.38 lbs of schedule 1 THC edibles, 69 individually packaged bags of marijuana (198.77 grams total), 12 small plastic jars of marijuana packaged to sale (65 grams total), 19 grams of schedule one THC concentrate, hundreds of THC electronic vapes, nearly 1,000 THC gummies and a loaded 12 gauge shotgun.
Wrens P.D.’s Assistant Chief and lead investigator PJ Hambrick said that hundreds of items have been submitted to the state crime lab to either confirm tests performed locally or for analysis that was beyond the capabilities of the local department.
“The things in plastic wrappers, gummies, cookies, smokeable materials that we were able to test using our own test kits, that’s the weights we have listed in the arrest warrants,” Hambrick said. “But there were thousands of different flavored vapes with different THCs.”
A variety of products were stored in sealed glass containers that were sent off to the state lab.
Hambrick said that during the investigation’s controlled purchases, the clerk was seen taking real marijuana out of a jar, weighing it, and placing it into packages labeled CBD or claiming that the product contained less that the legally allowed amount of THC.
“In reality, the substances would test positive for high grade marijuana,” Hambrick said.
While there were some legal items for sale in the store, some of which did not test positive for a THC content of .3 or more, Hambrick said that majority of items did test positive.
“He had more THC vapes than he had nicotine vapes,” Hambrick said. “He had numerous digital weighing scales for sale, smoking pipes, bongs, pills, THC liquids you could drink and gummies.”
Some of items’ of the items that exceeded the THC content legal in Georgia, appear to have originated in California. Among the items, Hambrick said, were also psychedelic mushrooms, both whole mushrooms and mushrooms in candy bars.
“What may be legal there is not legal here,” Hambrick said. “Another thing that raised concern, during our surveillance, there were people entering the building who weren’t old enough to buy tobacco products. There were kids who appeared to be 14 to 16 years of age entering the store.”
Hambrick said that he is aware of a lot of reputable businesses, many of which are chain stores, that sell legal hemp or CBD creams or gummies, but recommends citizens avoid packaging that has the letters THC, which is the abbreviation of the controlled substance in marijuana.
“There are different strands of THC that have not been approved by the FDA that people say are legal, but it's just because we haven’t done enough research, and neither have our federal partners, to determine what these substances actually contain,” Hambrick said. “I would be cautious buying any sort of flower type smokable material when you don’t know where it came from or any type of THC vape.
“This is unfortunate because we like to see new business in Wrens, but we want it to be legitimate businesses that are not selling this kind of thing on the streets and especially selling it to teenagers."
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Wrens vape store raided, officers seize marijuana
