Carlisle store owners charged with selling synthetic drugs - abc27 WHTM

Two Carlisle store owners have been charged with distributing illegal synthetic drugs after police said they raided the businesses and seized 15- to 20-thousand packages of synthetic marijuana and bath salts.

Nadar F. Alajlouni, 49, and Samir A. Halabi, 53, both of Carlisle, were arrested this week after raids at NS Deli, at 20 W. Willow Street, and Deli Creations, at 601 W. Louther Street, borough police said in a news release.

Court documents identified Alajlouni as the owner and manager of Deli Creations and Halabi as the owner and manager of NS Deli.

According to the documents, an undercover state police trooper purchased synthetic drugs from both stores in July.

The resulting raids resulted in the seizure of more than 15,000 packages of synthetic drugs from NS Deli. Synthetic marijuana, bath salts, and drug paraphernalia were seized at Deli Creations, documents stated.

Bath salts are a synthetic drug with effects similar to cocaine.

District Attorney Dave Freed said both businesses will be forfeited to the district attorney's office by the end of September. The properties will be liquidated and the money will be put toward future drug investigations.

"I can control how difficult we make it for people to do drug business in Cumberland County," Freed said. "We try to be very tough on taking cars, taking cash, taking property, so if we have businesses that are engaging in this type of activity, we are going to come after them and come after them hard."

Police said the amount of drugs seized indicates the high demand for synthetic drugs. They said the drugs pose dangers because they create unpredictable side-effects to users.

Carlisle Police Lieutenant Mike Dzezinski said the dDepartment is sending a message that these drugs will not be tolerated.

"If you are a dealer, we are going to come get you," he said. "It doesn't matter when, you may get away with it for a week, maybe a few months, but eventually we are going to come."

Freed noted that since the raid was made public in early July, law enforcement officials have noticed a decline of sales of synthetic drugs across the county.