WASHINGTON — A D.C. store that police say repeatedly sold synthetic drugs will be shut down for one year.
The D.C. Office of the Attorney General (OAG) obtained a court-ordered permanent injunction for the shutdown of the Bloomingdale store, which is owned by retired Metropolitan Police Department officer William Early.
According to a news release, Aida’s Electronics — at 209 Florida Avenue, in Northwest — was the site of multiple synthetic drugs seizures, and the shooting of an employee that may have been related to the sale of those drugs. Synthetic drugs have been illegal in the District since 2012.
“When I initially started off, I was told that it was legal. They were doing it in Chinatown openly. And I said, ‘Hey this is something to make a couple of extra bucks, so what?’” owner William Early tells Fox5.
“We’ve warned this guy. We’ve been back to the store numerous times but he’s still selling,” Assistant Attorney General Argatonia Weatherington tells Fox5. “I mailed Mr. Early notice in August and he called me back and said, ‘I’m never going to sell synthetic drugs again. It’s all gone.’ And of course, that wasn’t true.”
The business’s doors will be closed for one year starting in August. Early says he’s broke and the punishment is not fair. “I think the penalty is just a little bit more than it should have been,” he tells Fox5.
The Office of the Attorney General is investigating dozens of cases like this one throughout the District.
“Synthetic drugs poison our youth and endanger our public safety,” Attorney General Karl Racine said in the news release. “The message is clear: Businesses that sell synthetic drugs in the District of Columbia will face regulatory enforcement and litigation in court that could shut down their businesses for up to a year.”
The order bans Early, and anyone else, from operating Aida’s Electronics or another business at the store’s location. It also cancels all of Early’s business licenses, and orders him to pay $1,200 in damages to the District’s Drug, Firearm, or Prostitution-Related Nuisance Abatement Fund.
See a report from Fox5:
