By Denise G. Callahan

Staff Writer

A botched fake robbery in Mason turned into the biggest “bath salts” drug bust in Warren County, and possibly the region.

The Warren County Drug Task Force hauled in 17,140 packages of “bath salts” — with a street value of $685,600 — from a Mason business in November and now have charged the two main players in the alleged drug trafficking business, Eli Ohayon and Misty Davis.

The pair turned themselves in at the Warren County Jail on Tuesday.

They have allegedly been selling the banned substance under names like “Brilliance,” “Sparkle” and “Super Grow Plant Food,” that is until one of their sales people, James Lewellen, allegedly tried to rob them, according to Prosecutor David Fornshell.

“They are by all accounts the largest traffickers of ‘bath salts’ that we’ve certainly come across in Warren County and anecdotally, they are huge traffickers in not just Warren County but all of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee,” he said. “This is a highly sophisticated business and there is a lot of documentation of the criminal enterprise they were engaged in.”

Lewellen, 23, of Mason, was indicted by a grand jury on March 23 for safe cracking, grand theft, aggravated trafficking in drugs, aggravated possession of drugs and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. He and Korey Sorg, who was also indicted for safe cracking and grand theft, were hanging drywall at the apartment of Davis and Ohayon, when they apparently decided to steal a safe that contained $33,000.

Fornshell said since Lewellen allegedly worked for the couple, he assumed there was a lot of cash in the safe. He and his partner then decided to cover up the robbery by reporting the loss both to his boss and the police. When police decided the story was concocted, Lewellen allegedly implicated his bosses.

Further police investigation led them to an office on Mason-Montgomery Road where Davis and Ohayon were running a Far East Imports “bath salts” operation. Fornshell said they get the ingredient from China, package them here and distribute them to their sales force. They allegedly sell to gas stations and head shops. He said they also give their sales people free samples to hand out on the street, with the plan that people will get hooked and return to buy more, at $40 a packet.

Bath salts were banned by the legislature in Ohio last year. The innocuous sounding drugs can produce hallucinations, a high similar to cocaine and are highly addictive, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Ohayon and Davis allegedly produced lab tests showing the substances are not bath salts. Fornshell said the drug task force also had a lab test the packages and found the powdery substances “substantially similar in chemical composition” to a number of different controlled substances typically found in bath salts.

The bath salts business owners face a possible 122 years in prison if they are found guilty of on all 14 felony counts for aggravated trafficking and possession of drugs, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and possession of criminal tools. Fornshell said it is unlikely that amount of time behind bars would be imposed.

Two other people were also indicted on the safe cracking case, Angel Snider, 18, and Nelson Wolf, 41, both of Charlestown, Ind. They face fourth-degree felony charges of safe cracking and grand theft.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.