Ten people allegedly part of a Harlem drug ring were charged with conspiracy for running a synthetic cannabinoid distribution scheme that put hundreds of millions of dollars worth of chemically-altered smokable narcotics on New York’s streets, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
The crew allegedly acquired chemical compounds from China using commercial delivery services, combined them with solvents such as acetone, added flavor, and then sprayed the mixture onto materials such as tea leaves, the indictment said.
The product was then packaged up, given brand names such as “AK-47,” “Blue Caution,” “Green Giant,” “Psycho,” “Red Eye,” “Black Extreme,” and “Scooby Snacks,” and sold in corner shops such as bodegas, delis, and convenience stores around the five boroughs for as little $2 and $5.
The substance, more commonly known as “Spice” or K2, is marketed as a synthetic marijuana-like weed that provides a cheap and legal high. Spice is currently not illegal to sell in New York City.
At a news conference announcing the crackdown on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “This stuff is not marijuana...this is literally poison.”
“[Spice] is not marijuana in the way that a bazooka is not a BB gun,” he added.
Bharara was joined by New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton, and agents from the DEA, ICE, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, which all had a hand in the investigation.
In total, the task force says it raided five city warehouses and seized more than 100 kilos of Spice with a street value of more than $30 million.
Bratton said that the NYPD would visit 80 to 90 retail locations around the city on Wednesday to seize Spice products for sale. Because New York City does not have laws criminalizing the sale of Spice, Bratton said that the police do not have the authority to arrest any store owners or workers.
However, Bharara said he intends to charge anyone knowingly connected to the Harlem crew with federal conspiracy charges, including bodega and deli proprietors, calling Wednesday’s announcement “a warning” to more than just the drug distributors and manufacturers.
Of the ten people charged in the case, one of the alleged co-conspirators was identified as retail seller.
Bharara said the crew that was busted is made up of mostly U.S. citizens with a Yemeni backgrounds, and that at least two individuals are related. He said the crew operated around 125th Street in Harlem, near several homeless shelters and rehabilitation clinics.
Bharara called this week’s bust “the single largest law enforcement action to combat the Spice epidemic” and referred to Spice abuse as a “public health crisis.”
Smoking Spice can reportedly cause physical effects such as agitation, rapid heart rate, vomiting, nausea, panic attacks and kidney damage.
Several teens in Alabama reportedly took their own lives after smoking Spice.
According to NYPD, between April 1 and July 31, more than 1,900 people were admitted to hospitals in New York State after smoking Spice. New York City alone saw 120 cases of people admitted to the hospital in one week in April. Bharara said Wednesday that according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers calls to poison centers from people suffering from adverse effects from smoking Spice increased 229% from January to May 2015.
Recently, Bratton called Spice “weaponized marijuana,” and called the drug “a great and growing concern in the city.”
