Two smoke shop employees were arrested on drug charges just days after a pair of University of Mississippi students were found dead under mysterious circumstances in separate incidents.
Police raided a tobacco and vape shop roughly one mile from the Ole Miss campus and recovered more than 500 units of kratom along with THC cartridges, gummies, and other suspected narcotics, the Lafayette County Metro Narcotics Unit announced Friday.
Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Mohamed, 18, both of Oxford, were booked for possession of Schedule I controlled substances with intent to distribute.
Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51 was arrested. X/OxfordPolice
Islam Mohamed was also nabbed in the bust. X/OxfordPolice
The owner, Amer Alowdi, 40, was indicted for trafficking narcotics in 2022 – but fled the country before he could be prosecuted, the unit said.
Authorities have not confirmed a connection between the business and the deaths of Ole Miss students Aidan Hamilton, 18, and Robert Strang, 20.
The students died in separate incidents on Monday, but “packaged Kratom sold from a retail store” was discovered at both scenes, the drug unit previously revealed.
“This investigation does not end with these arrests. These individuals and this business are not necessarily the only people involved in the illegal distribution of these products,” it said.
Strang, from Atlanta, a “dear son” and co-chairman of the 2026 Rush for the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, was found at an off-campus home, according to Fox News.
Hamilton, a “bright, wonderful young man” from Colorado, is believed to have been discovered at a male dorm on campus, the outlet reported.
Officials responded to a “possible OD” at a dormitory on the same day that the young students were found dead, but it remains unclear if the subject of the call was one of the victims.
“They do not believe the subject is breathing — trying to start CPR over the phone,” a woman says in a Lafayette County dispatch recording obtained by WMC Action 5 News. “I believe they’re still trying to get somebody in the dorms to do, or in the building to do CPR.”
Shop owner Amer Alowdi was indicted for trafficking narcotics in 2022. X/OxfordPolice
Kratom, also known as “gas station heroin,” is a potent, opioid-like drug that can be legally sold in parts of Mississippi but is restricted within Lafayette County where the university is located.
The narcotics squad said it does “not have confirmed information indicating that kratom or any other substance was a contributing factor in either death,” but encourages everyone to “avoid kratom and any other medication or substance that was not prescribed to you or obtained from a trusted, regulated source.”
Following the arrests, the unit reiterated that “Kratom has been prohibited from possession, distribution, and sale within the City of Oxford since 2019.”
The Oxford Police Department referred The Post to the university for questions about a possible link between the arrests and the investigations into the student deaths.
The university did not immediately respond to request for comment.