Police in the District of Columbia arrested two men Wednesday and took more than 260 pounds of synthetic drugs they had in their possession.
The drugs, with a reported $2.3 million street value, were shipped in from the West Coast, before undercover police officers drove it from Maryland to a warehouse in the district where they met the buyers, The Washington Post reports.
Once the buy went down, police rushed in and arrested two buyers after they started to load the drugs into a storage bin.
The two men, Yenework Abera, 41, and Siraj Issa, 33, were arrested on federal charges of possession with intent to distribute and face a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison, Fox 5 reports.
Police have been devoting extra attention to taking synthetic drugs off the street after they say increased use of the drugs have contributed to the recent outbreak of violence in the city.
Last month, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser passed emergency legislation that banned sales of synthetic drugs in the city following several violent incidents blamed on the drugs.
In one instance, a man was brutally stabbed to death on Independence Day on a crowded train by a man believed to be high on synthetic drugs.
The two were on a train headed for downtown D.C. when Jasper Spires tried to steal Kevin Sutherland’s cellphone. The two struggled before Spires punched Sutherland several times in the face and stabbed him nearly 40 times before darting off the train and into the holiday crowds.
Police found Spires the following day after a city-wide manhunt and said he appeared to have the drugs in his system.
The new law allows district officials to shut down any business — typically liquor stores and gas station — caught selling the synthetic drugs, which are supposed to produce a high similar to marijuana, but instead have been known to launch people on hallucinations and violent rampages.
In the month of June, more than 400 people in the city were transported to the hospital after overdosing on synthetic drugs.
The drugs are often referred to as synthetic marijuana and frequently packaged under brand names such as K2, Scooby Snax, Bizzaro or Spice.
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