Deputies searched the business for illegal drugs
A Jeffersonville gas station owner will avoid jail time after admitting to selling illegal synthetic drugs.
Fayette Advocate was in the courtroom on Monday when Kuljit Singh, primary stockholder of the Shell Gas Station in Jeffersonville, present with his lawyer, Michael Miller, plead guilty Monday morning to three counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs, all fourth-degree felonies.
Singh, 56, will serve two years on adult probation through the Fayette County Common Pleas Court.
According to the Fayette County Sheriff’s office, Deputies executed a search warrant on the Shell Food Mart fueling station in Jeffersonville on July 12 for the alleged illegal sale of synthetic marijuana and other drug paraphernalia.
Mandeep Kaur, 35, of Washington Court House, was charged with felony counts of trafficking in controlled substances after she was the clerk working at the time of the raid; she taken into custody and booked into the Fayette County Jail.
“We received numerous allegations of trafficking in synthetic marijuana,” Agent-in-Charge of the Columbus District Office SuAnn Cook said. “Unfortunately, we continue to see synthetic drugs like Spice being sold in Ohio.”
Fayette County Sheriff Vernon P. Stanforth said that the investigation into the illegal sale of drugs had been an on-going investigation with undercover agents from the Ohio Department of Public Safety purchasing the substances from the business.
Fayette County Prosecutor Jess Weade said that Kaur plead to a first degree misdemeanor charge of permitting drug abuse. The charge carried a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
In addition to the criminal charges, administrative charges were filed against the company who owns and operates the fueling station, Multani & Saini, Inc., located at 220 State Street, in Jeffersonville. Those charges included:
- Four counts of drug sales;
- Five counts of drug possession;
- Two counts drug paraphernalia sales; and
- Two counts drug paraphernalia possession
On October 17, 2011, legislation signed by Ohio Governor John Kasich in July 2011 went into effect and added synthetic marijuana, known as K2 or spice, and six synthetic derivatives of cathinone that have been found in bath salts to the list of Schedule 1 controlled substances. The products were being sold legally at convenience stores, tobacco shops, and other businesses prior to the ban.
Synthetic marijuana, marketed as K2 or Spice, is an herbal substance sold as an incense or smoking material that remains legal in the United States. The products contain one or more synthetic compounds that behave similarly to the primary psychoactive constituent of marijuana, or THC.