Leonel Lopez-Martinez
The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office received information in October, 2014, that a small grocery store on Reed Pond Road was selling an illegal substance that individuals were putting in their e-cigarettes.
Since that time, narcotics officers made some undercover purchases of the substances and submitted them to the GBI Crime Lab for analysis. Investigators also received information that the money the suspect was making from selling the substance was being deposited into two different bank accounts.
The crime lab informed the sheriff’s office that the substance had been identified as a synthetic Schedule 1 illegal narcotic.
Members of the sheriff’s office and Drug Enforcement Administration executed a search warrant on Wednesday at the S & L Grocery at 902 Reed Pond Road, the suspect’s residence, 2351 Clifton Circle, and on two bank accounts. Investigators seized several bottles of the e-cig synthetic liquid, three firearms, three vehicles, and approximately $50,000 in cash.
Leonel Lopez-Martinez, 34, was arrested and charged with selling Schedule 1 narcotics.