OXFORD, Miss. (WMC) – The cause of death of two Ole Miss students was revealed Friday in court proceedings.
In court, one of the defense lawyers for two men accused of selling narcotics said a student died from the combined use of various substances, including cough syrup. The other student died of inhalation asphyxiation.
A federal judge ruled that Yahya Mosleh would remain in custody, finding he was a flight risk because of his ties to another country.
The judge also said Mosleh was in communication with the store’s owner, Amer Alowdi, who is a fugitive and believed to be in Egypt, according to an agent who testified Friday.
Mosleh’s son, Islam Mosleh, was granted $20,000 bail with conditions including a curfew and surveillance of the scene.
The two students, Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20, died on Monday September 21.
Investigators say Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford, where both Moslehs worked, sold the pills to Hamilton twice in the days before his death.
While officials believe it was Puffs who sold Hamilton the narcotics found in his system, they say Strang bought his pills at another store outside the county, 20 miles away.
After those deaths, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics agents sent a confidential informant to Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford to investigate suspected sales of illegal substances, according to the arrest affidavit.
The tipster asked if the store sold “7-OH Kratom pills.”
Records show the employee said yes before warning the informant to “be careful taking the pills because people are dying from them.”
Oxford police then executed a search warrant at the store and 500 units of kratom and related products were seized. An assortment of “THC cartridges, gummies, pre-rolls and other suspected THC substances” were also recovered.
During the search, detectives found the same brand of Smax Mango Breeze MGM-15, with identical packaging, ingredients and a $39.99 price tag with a stain on the 9, at the store found near Hamilton.
According to court records, a toxicology report, which has not been made public, shows that both victims had the same three substances – Mitrogynine, MGM-15 and MGPI – that are all present in Smax Mango Breeze pills.
Only one witness testified Friday during the hearing at the federal courthouse in Oxford.
Caleb Easter is an agent with the Lafayette County Metropolitan Narcotics Unit. He said the investigation began on September 21 when he received a call.
Easter said this call was about a possible young man who died at the university’s Stewart Hall.
Easter said when he arrived, staff had already pronounced the man dead, his body had already started to go into rigor mortis, he had white foam around his mouth and blood around his teeth.
Easter said the young man’s roommate had met him shortly before, when he moved in, and knew only that he smoked a lot of marijuana.
An hour later, Easter said he received another phone call from another young man unconscious off campus.
“Victim 2 hadn’t been dead that long.” Easter said. “There was always the same white foam.”
The victims’ families provided law enforcement with photo copies of bank statements. According to Easter, the first victim spent $87.18 at Puff’s Vape on September 20.
Victim two Spent $43.59 at Puff’s Vape also on September 20th according to Easter. Both purchases were made the day before the two students died.
In conclusion, federal prosecutors stated that “this case stems from several tragic cases of student overdoses here at Oxford…the evidence supports detention…the victims died in conditions comparable to overdoses.” »
Prosecutors said the defendants were aware of their actions in selling illegal drugs.
Easter testified that Yahya told the confidential informant making a controlled buy for the narcotics unit that the drugs were dangerous and the students died but sold them anyway.
Prosecutors said “they pose a grave danger to this community.”
The judge ruled that Yahya Mosleh will remain behind bars for the duration of the case. Islam, her son, will be released on $20,000 unsecured bail with conditions.
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