The owner of East Greenwich Farm, a mini-mart at 360 Main St., was arrested Wednesday afternoon for selling synthetic marijuana to an undercover police officer. Police swept into the store at about 2:15 p.m., cordoning off the parking lot.
Rakeshkumar Patel was brought out of the store at 3:55 p.m. and taken to the police station. He faces one charge of delivery of a controlled substance.
“We launched an investigation about six months ago regarding synthetic marijuana and other narcotics being sold out of the store,” said Detective Sgt. Jon Chirnside.
About a dozen officers were involved in Wednesday’s arrest. Patel was the only employee in the store at the time of the raid.
Chirnside said police received several tips from customers and neighbors that prescription drugs and synthetic marijuana were being sold from the store but the raid did not turn up either item. The arrest stems from a purchase made about six weeks ago. Purchases were made over the counter, Chirnside said.
“Someone would typically come in and say, ‘Can I get a bag? Can I get one?’ The clerk would then remove the item from behind the counter, hand it to the customer and make the transaction,” he said.
Patel will be arraigned in 3rd District Court. Chirnside said the investigation would continue he did not anticipate making any other arrests.
Synthetic marijuana is often marketed as “herbal incense” or “herbal smoking blend” and is sometimes referred to as K2. In 2012, the federal government banned the synthetic compounds found in synthetic marijuana, classifying them as Schedule 1 drugs, those considered most dangerous.
That’s all fine and good, and certainly debatable about whether this is a big deal or not (I personally side ‘not’)…seems a little overkill to have 12 officers involved in the arrest (not to mention that the raid didn’t actually turn up any illegal drugs so the arrest related to an interaction from 6 weeks ago) . How about using 25% of that manpower to have regular drunk driving checkpoints down at the harbor Friday afternoons through Sunday nights? Far more rampant and exponentially more dangerous than what this guy was doing. Why doesn’t that happen?
He was actually selling drugs to underage children.
12 officers, and 6 weeks of investigation for synthetic marijuana resulting in 1 arrest….. Not Bad!!
Funny they didn’t catch on to his EBT card scam?
Thank goodness they got this menace off the streets so we can sleep at night. How about the guys that rob these stores at gunpoint? Maybe we can target a few of those?
Look up K-2 cat, that’s what synthetic marijuana is.Not very good for you. And he certainly was a menace. Look into what else he was selling.
Reblogged this on rrivas1111 and commented:
Sold everywhere.