Five waive synthetic drug cases to court
Five defendants charged last month with dealing in what Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone calls “synthetic cannabinoids” waived their rights to preliminary hearings Friday, while all counts against one defendant’s mother were withdrawn in exchange for waiving to court the charge against the corporation of which they are owners.
Snehal Patel, 38, and his wife, Pratishka, 33, of 128 Hardwood Drive, Venetia, whose family business is Cigarette City on Jefferson Avenue, Washington, waived their hearings before District Judge Robert Redlinger.
Nine counts against Snehal’s mother, Kailash, 65, also of Hardwood Drive, Venetia, were withdrawn. They are the owners of the enterprise known as Snehal and Kailash Inc., doing business as Cigarette City, where authorities claim two-gram packages of plant material sprayed with chemicals sold for $30. The packages carried names like “Comatose Candy” and were marked “not for human consumption.”
Also waiving their rights to hearings were:
• David DiBello, 59, of 1221 Lucia Drive, Canonsburg, a co-owner of Tobacco 4 Less LLC, 3202 Washington Road, McMurray, which was served with a sealed search warrant July 25, 2012, when 112 packages of synthetic marijuana with the brand names Cloud Nine, Caution, AK 47, Barely Legal Express, Devil’s Wrath and Barely Legal High Octane were seized along with pipes, metal grinders used for processing and a digital scale.
• Randy Berger, 43, of 150 Millview Drive, Pittsburgh, who was named as a supplier of illegal drugs.
• Richard Schran Jr., 42, of 830 Walnut St., Donora, who law enforcement authorities claim was warehousing products for a co-conspirator who was not charged last month.
One count of conspiracy against Andrew Schade of 108 Lee Street, Carnegie, who operated Schade’s Snack, News and Lotto in McDonald, was dismissed. At his arraignment last month, Schade said he no longer owns the business.
Although the businesses remain open, they are no longer dealing in the illegal substances, authorities said.
Some of the defendants maintained they were told the synthetic marijuana, also known as K2 and Spice, was legal.
“If told it’s legal, you rely on someone at your own peril,” Vittone said. “Our position is this stuff has always been illegal, and it makes kids sick.”
After a news conference last month in which he announced the local arrests, Vittone said he had been contacted by Karen Dobner of Aurora, Ill., whose son, Max, 19, died June 14, 2011, after smoking the substance. According to Dobner’s website, 2theMax.org, Max drove his car at speeds of 80 to 100 mph and plowed into a house.
While there have been no known deaths in Washington County, Vittone said children who have smoked the substance have been sickened.
Another defendant in the case, Dharmesh Jain, formerly of Washington, who was described as being in his mid-40s, sold his business, Dharmesh Inc., known as Mega Express in Washington, and is believed to have departed for India last September. He has been declared a fugitive, Vittone said.