MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Newly released documents show prosecutors believe the two men charged with selling synthetic kratom in Oxford to be “a danger to the public.”

Yahya Mosleh, 51, and Islam Mosleh, 18, appeared in federal court on Thursday, where a judge ruled there was probable cause to hand down federal charges against the two vape store employees.

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

Prosecutors also believe the two men to be significant flight risks and asked the court to revoke the $20,000 bond handed down to each of them.

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.

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.

During the raid, detectives found the same brand of Smax Mango Breeze MGM-15, with identical packaging, ingredients and a $39.99 price tag with a smudge on the 9, at the store that had been found near Hamilton.

According to court records, a toxicology report, which has not been made publicly available, shows both victims had the same three substances present--Mitrogynine, MGM-15 and MGPI--which are all featured in the Smax Mango Breeze pills.

“The government would submit that, again, this is a distribution of a controlled substance causing death case,” court records read. “This offense is a real and present danger to the community. The defendants continued to distribute and possess these Kratom-like products even after the city of Oxford and Lafayette County banned them years ago.”

Prosecutors note in court that the younger Mosleh, who attends Oxford High School, had previously drawn complaints from a school resource officer who was suspicious that Mosleh was selling THC vapes to students at the school. Similar vapes were found in Islam Mosleh’s pockets and backpack.

Prosecutors believe the Moslehs to be a flight risk because of their connections in Egypt and Yemen; the store’s owner, 40-year-old Amer Alowdi, has been wanted for four years. Alowi was indicted for trafficking narcotics in 2022 but fled the county before he could be prosecuted.

“This case checks all the boxes for detention: presumption, deaths of two individuals, danger to the public including the danger of death, danger of drugs to minors – high school students; suspicious behavior to a place of worship; significant ties to another country; and a real risk of flight,” prosecutors state in court records.

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