Pills found near dead Ole Miss student didn't come from gas station after feds raid store, owner says
FIRST ON FOX: The owner of the gas station where investigators say Robert Strang bought synthetic kratom denies that the pills found near the student's body came from his store.
Court documents show that Ole Miss students Strang, 20, and Aidan Hamilton, 18, were found dead on Sept. 21, each discovered near similar packages of synthetic kratom. Authorities said Hamilton "could have died due to a Pulmonary Edema," a conclusion consistent with a drug overdose. First responders who arrived at Strang's residence near campus found him "cold to the touch," according to dispatch audio.
A narcotics agent wrote in an affidavit that the pills found near both students were Smax Pseudo-DHM, and listed pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15(DHM) among the ingredients found on the pack near Hamilton. The Drug Enforcement Administration temporarily placed mitragynine pseudoindoxyl in Schedule I on Aug. 26, which bars its sale.
A Mississippi law enforcement agent investigating the Ole Miss students' deaths said he believes "pseudoindoxyl" refers to that compound, and lab results confirming the pills' contents are pending, court documents say.
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After speaking with Strang's roommates, agents learned he had been buying "Smax" pills at Express Mart #7, a gas station in Water Valley, Mississippi, a little over 20 minutes from Ole Miss. An undercover Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agent later bought a similar form of Smax Pseudo pills at the store. The package lists pseudoindoxyl as its ingredient, which the narcotics agent says he believes is short for mitragynine pseudoindoxyl.
Ibrahim Aydah, the owner of the gas station, told Fox News Digital he doesn't believe the "Smax" pills found near Strang came from his store. He said he doesn't put price labels on his products, while the pack near Strang had a price on it, also claiming he doesn't carry the 200 mg version.
"The package that I see on the news, it wasn't from my store," Aydah said. "The package...the Smax is 200. I never carry 200. And it has different ingredients in it than mine."
According to court documents, a store clerk told the undercover agent that they were out of the 200 mg version.
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Aydah said federal agents seized all of the kratom products in his store Friday, and said he wishes he would have gotten notice from the federal government that he was carrying illegal products.
"Yes, they took all my stuff. I lost everything and it's a law." Aydah said. "The federal law bans it. I was shocked."
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"You see about 15 cars [of] police, undercover, everywhere. I was at the house and I came and dropped by. I opened the office...they checked everything. They took everything," Aydah said of the raid, which he said was conducted by the DEA. "I'm a businessman. I'm not a drug dealer."
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Asked what he would say to the families of the students, Aydah offered condolences.
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"I feel sorry for the young kids who lost their lives to an overdose. You know, it hurts. I feel them. Their friends, their classmates, and everyone...you know, he's a young kid," Aydah said.
A spokeswoman for the DEA told Fox News Digital that the agency executed a search warrant at the gas station on Friday, noting that it's part of an "ongoing investigation."
"The Aug. 26 scheduling order does cover products that list ‘pseudoindoxyl’ on the label," she said.
Aydah hasn't been charged by authorities or accused of any wrongdoing.
In a statement Wednesday, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics, a department in the sheriff's office, stopped short of declaring that investigators found kratom itself near either student.
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"During the investigations, packaging associated with kratom-related products was discovered at both locations," part of the statement read. The Sept. 25 affidavit reported toxicology results from the medical examiner were still pending.
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American Kratom Association Senior Fellow on Public Policy Mac Haddow said Wednesday during a news conference that the specific drug found near both students is illegal.
Haddow pointed out the sale and possession of some synthetic kratom has been illegal federally as of August and illegal to sell or possess in Oxford, Mississippi since 2019, and illegal in Lafayette County, where Oxford is located, since 2021.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the DEA for comment.