OXFORD, Miss. (WMC) - A judge has determined there’s probable cause to hand down federal charges against the two vape store employees whom investigators claim sold synthetic kratom to a student who died from a suspected overdose last week in Oxford.

Yahya Mosleh, 51, and Islam Mosleh, 18, appeared in federal court on Thursday.

Both face federal charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

Last week, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics agents sent a confidential informant into Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford to investigate the alleged sales of illegal substances, according to the arrest affidavit.

The informant asked if the store sold “7-OH Kratom-based pills.”

Records show the clerk said yes before warning the informant to “be careful taking the pills, because people are dying from them.”

Oxford police then executed a search warrant at the store, and 500 units of kratom and kratom-like products were seized. An assortment of “THC cartridges, gummies, pre-rolls, and other suspected THC substances” was also recovered.

Both Yahya and Islam were subsequently arrested and charged.

According to court affidavits, that raid stemmed from the suspected overdose deaths of University of Mississippi students Aidan Hamilton and Robert Strang on Monday, September 21.

Hamilton reportedly purchased “Smax” Pseudo-DHM tablets, a synthetic kratom product, at Puffs twice before his death.

Strang bought the pills at a different store in Yalobusha County.

The Puffs storefront was closed Wednesday, with a handwritten sticky note on the front door reading “closed perm.”

The two students’ causes of death have still not been confirmed. Metro Narcotics reports that both cases remain under investigation.

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