Rachel Sadon
Photo via Flickr.
A Bloomingdale store has been shuttered for one year for allegedly selling synthetic drugs repeatedly.
Amid a citywide crackdown on the substances, Attorney General Karl Racine has obtained an injunction preventing Aida’s Electronics (at 209 Florida Avenue NW) from operating. Police have seized synthetic drugs from the store on multiple occasions, and an employee was shot on the premises in a case that investigators believe was related to the drugs’ sale, according to the Office of the Attorney General. They have been pursuing a case against the store’s owner, William Early, since November of last year.
Early, according to Racine’s office, is a retired Metropolitan Police Department officer. He had agreed to close the store for six months and stop selling synthetic drugs under a preliminary injunction order, but he violated it by re-opening the store under a different name less than a month later, the Attorney General’s office said in a release.
The permanent injunction order now prevents him—or anyone else—from operating Aida’s Electronics or any other business at that location for a year. It also cancels Early’s business licenses and orders him to pay $1,200 in damages.
“The message is clear: Businesses that sell synthetic drugs in the District of Columbia will face regulatory enforcement and litigation in court that could shut down their businesses for up to a year,” Racine said. “Synthetic drugs poison our youth and endanger our public safety.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser signed emergency legislation last week to increase the penalties for businesses caught selling synthetic drugs in the wake of an increasing number of overdoses.
Under the bill, MPD Chief Cathy Lanier would have the authority to close down any business caught selling synthetic drugs for up to 96 hours. Additionally, businesses caught selling synthetic drugs will be fined $10,000 for the first violation and $20,000 for a second violation, as well as the risk of being shut down for up to 30 days, with the DCRA moving to permanently revoke its business license.
Federally, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton co-sponsored a bill which was introduced by Mac Thornberry (R-TX) that would crack down on the drugs by going after the manufacturers and distributors. Under current law, the Drug Enforcement Agency can’t prosecute the makers and distributors of substances like K2, Bath Salts, Spice, and Scooby Snax because they are labeled “not intended for human consumption.”
D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General has also filed suit against the owner of 3661 Georgia Avenue NW and served a notice of unlawful activity to the owner of 3653 Georgia Avenue NW under public-nuisance laws. Both store owners have agreed to stop selling synthetic drugs. The OAG took similar actions at a store at 800 Upshur Street NW. The property’s owners have since initiated eviction proceedings against the tenant.
