Weed contaminated with fentanyl found in unlicensed Connecticut smoke shop

Police in Connecticut found marijuana laced with deadly fentanyl during a raid on an unlicensed weed shop Friday.

Cops were executing a search warrant at the ZaZa Smoke Shop in Norwalk when they seized cannabis products containing THC from the store for lacking a cannabis license, the Norwalk Police Department said.

“Police received information that this location was also selling marijuana laced with fentanyl. Many of the marijuana products seized during the search tested positive for the presence of fentanyl,” the Facebook post read.

Hundreds of illegal marijuana products were confiscated, in addition to nearly $2,000 in cash.

During Friday’s raid, police arrested Ali Mahmood Ahmed Abdullah Ghaleb, 21, of New York, charging him with possession with intent to sell more than 1 kg of cannabis, possession of a cannabis plant, sale of a narcotic substance and possession with intent to sell narcotics, in addition to other charges.

Ghaleb’s bond was set at $15,000 and he is expected to appear in court on Aug. 16.

Federal authorities continue making record fentanyl seizures at the southern border, which is the main source of the illicit narcotic in the US. In Arizona last week, federal border authorities made their largest seizure in history of 4 million fentanyl pills.

Mexican cartels’ production of fentanyl continues to be “off the charts” bringing “a tsunami of these drugs all throughout our communities in every state,” former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division chief Derek Maltz previously told The Post.

It is estimated that there were nearly 110,000 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2023, largely fueled by fentanyl and other synthetic narcotics, according to preliminary data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.