$7,000 worth of product seized from Luling store
Two employees of Birdie’s Food and Fuel, which is located on Paul Maillard Road, were arrested after authorities say they continued to sell “bath salts” after they were outlawed in an emergency rule by Gov. Bobby Jindal earlier this month.
Maher Adnan Awad, 37, and Khaled Awad Hammad, 46, both of 126 Lakewood Drive #54 in Luling, were charged with possession with the intent to distribute bath salts. The two were arrested after authorities executed a search of Birdie’s in Luling and found a large amount of bath salt packets, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
During the investigation, it was learned that Awad and Hammad were selling the bath salt packets out of the convenience store even though they had knowledge that the items were declared illegal by Jindal on Jan. 7, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Pat Yoes said.
Detectives seized $7,000 in product from the store.
Hammad was released after posting a $1,500 bond and Awad was released after posting a $2,500 bond.
The product, which is listed under many names including “Cloud Nine” and “White Dove,” is marketed as a bath salt but narcotics investigators say it is a deadly and dangerous hallucinogenic speed when ingested.
So far, the Sheriff’s Office has seized an estimated retail value of $14,736.21 from stores around the parish that voluntarily surrendered the product after the governor’s order.
The dangers of the bath salts hit home for one Des Allemands mother last month. The mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said her son was given the substance by a family member and snorted it. The boy ingested the product a day before his 17th birthday.
“He came home and right away I could tell that something wasn’t right,” the mother said. “He could barely talk and he had a dead stare. His eyes were black and he couldn’t keep still…he kept grabbing at his chest.”
After noticing her son’s severe reactions, the mother took him to Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital in Raceland. When her son returned home from the hospital, the mother said it took three days for the substance to get out of his system.
Louisiana poison control authorities have logged 165 calls since September from people in crisis after smoking or injecting the substances, Jindal said.
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