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January 17, 2019
Sposito lauds colleagues as she leaves chair role
January 17, 2019
A gas statical and convenience stare at a high-profile Houma location that was at the center of a legal tug-of-war fallowing a 2013 synthetic marijuana bust has been sold at auction last week. Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office officials confirmed Friday, placing it back on the tax rolls in the hands of private owners.
But the purchase price. TPSO Col. Terry Daigre confirmed, was $650,000. The money will be split between the Sheriff’s Office, the Terrebonne Parish District Attorney’s Office and the pariah’s criminal court fund, which pays for court operations. The Sheriff’s Office will receive 60 percent the District Attorney 20 percent, and the court fund 20 percent, per state laws that govern forfeiture.
The raid that resulted in the seizure of the property at 6957 West Park Avenue, was one of a series of police actions that were described at the time as one of the largest synthetic marijuana busts in the nation, part of a national endeavor coordinated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Sheriff’s Office records show that the successful bidder was Gapp Commercial Properties Ltd., a Thibodaux corporation with an address of 100 Nichol-1s Drive. Its registered agent is Raja S. Talluri, M.D. He is a Vacherie internist and is affiliated with Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Plans for the property have not yet been dis-closd.
Terrebonne officials first encountered synthetic marijuana in 2006. the Sheriff’s Office said. The chemicals inside the substance were banned nationally in 2009 and in Louisiana in 2010.
The product consists of plant material that has been impregnated with dangerous psychoactive compounds that mimic THC. the active ingredient in marijuana, DEA officials said.
The June 6, 2013 arrests and executions of warrants led to seizures of cash as well, from the West Park site as well as other convergence stores.
Kassim Nagi and Tawfiq Ali Almansoob were arrested specifically in connection with the West Park Avenue locations. A safe deposit bank at Coastal Commerce Bank containing cash was also seized, court records show. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Mohamed Nagi, Kassim Nagi’s father, who was at that time in Yemen and is still believed there. The case against Alrnansoob, who testified against Nagi, was declined for prosecution ultimately. Kassim Nagi’s brother. Abdulqawi Nagi, was acquitted of a single possession with intent to distribute charge.
In 2016 District Judge Randy Bethancourt sentenced Kassim Nagi to 90 years an counts of racketeering, money laundering and synthetic marijuana sales, following his conviction by a jury, computed from the judge’s order that the sentences run consecutively.
The convictions and sentences were affirmed by the Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in April.
It was a total team effort between the agencies involved and the prosecution to rid Terrebonne’s community of a very harmful illegal drug, synthetic marijuana, which is nowhere dose to marijuana.” Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate, who prosecuted the case, said during an interview when the proceedings were completed. “We have accomplished what District Attorney Joe Waitz said he wanted us to do. We have warned stare owners to not be selling this stuff, and if they continue to sell this poison in our community we would prosecute.”
Attention was drawn to sales of the material, referred to in stores and on the street as “mojo” and by a variety of brand names in 2011 and the investigation began in 3012. Surveillance and undercover buys as well as interviews by
law enforcement of purchasers continued for nearly two years as law enforcement officials built their cases. In 3013 Terrebonne Parish deputies and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials swarmed three locations, including the Hollywood and Park store.
The arrests and seizures ware part of a nationwide effort coordinated by the DEA that included separate cases in 85 states, what that agency referred to as the nation’s largest ever synthetic drug enforcement effort. A total of 150 arrest warrants were issued in connection with the take-downs, including 11 in Terrebonne.
The Seizure and Controlled Dangerous Substances Property Forfeiture Act La. R.3. io.2801, et seq., allows law enforcement officials to seize illegal drugs and property constituting the proceeds of any drug-related conduct Pursuant to the act on September 33. 2013. the State of Louisiana began to file a petitions for forfeiture. Seizure of funds allegedly controlled by the senior Nagi-the man still believed in Yemen-were the subject of extensive litigation Rut prosecutors said they were able to have an attorney appointed as his representative, allowing them to proceed. Steps in the appeals process remain to be taken but attorneys said they are at this point seen as formalities.
The product consists of plant material that has been impregnated with dangerous psychoactive compounds which mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. DEA officials said. Authorities have had difficulty prosecuting such cases in the past because the formulas for the substances would change quicker than the laws making them illegal could be amended However, legislation was passed at the height of the synthetic marijuana epidemic that tightened up definitions and made prosuctions easier.
