Aurora police have arrested a man and a woman for allegedly dealing the illegal designer drug known as “spice” after finding about 12,000 packets of the drug.
Dowinder Boparai, 54, and Seble Gebreegziadhair, 28, both of Aurora, were jailed and are each being held on $50,000 bonds.
“It is an extremely dangerous drug, and an overdose with this drug is the official cause of death of at least one 15-year-old male in Aurora last summer,” according to the news release by Aurora spokesman Frank Fania.
Aurora narcotics detectives opened an investigation Wednesday after spotting the two suspects making a drug deal, Fania said.
When police arrested Gebreegziadhair they found several hundred packets of suspected spice. Officers later went to Boparai’s home and arrested him as well.
Police continued to investigate the case through the night and on Thursday. They served three warrants to search storage facilities and they found thousands of packets of what they believe is spice, according to the news release.
Spice is a synthetic cannabinoid designed to mimic the effects of marijuana. It is a psychoactive designer drug derived from natural herbs and sprayed with synthetic chemicals.
It can be up to 800 times stronger than marijuana.
“We need to educate young people who use this stuff that it can kill. I am thankful that our officers got so large an amount of spice off the streets and that we are holding these dealers accountable,” Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kmitchelldp
