Eassa Rawashdeh, the owner of Smokey’s Discount Tobacco at 1403 John Barrow Road, surrendered Friday at the Little Rock Police Department after learning he was wanted on a federal warrant in an investigation into the selling of synthetic drugs.
Rawashdeh made his first appearance in federal court Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere with his attorney, Stuart Vess of Little Rock, who had just been hired.
On Friday, Vess said he wasn’t yet familiar with a 41-page affidavit laying out the basis for federal charges against Rawashdeh and five other business owners accused of buying and selling illegal synthetic substances.
The substances are commonly known by the names “Spice,” “K2” and “bath salts.”
In an operation dubbed “Spicy Possum,” the five other business owners were rounded up and arrested Wednesday in a raid that was part of a national effort to tamp down the rising use of synthetic drugs, which officials say are especially marketed to teenagers and young adults.
The synthetic versions of marijuana and methamphetamine are commonly misconstrued as harmless, officials said after the Wednesday raids.
Because Vess had yet to read the lengthy affidavit that led Deere to issue a criminal complaint earlier in the week, and because the assigned prosecutor wasn’t available Friday, the judge and attorneys decided to wait until next week to decide whether Rawashdeh should remain in custody. After a federal prosecutorasked that he be detained, Rawashdeh agreed to remain in custody until a hearing can be scheduled.
Although Deere had an Arabic interpreter on standby on the telephone, Rawashdeh told her he didn’t need an interpreter, even though English is his second language.
Deere asked Vess if heagreed that his client understood English well enough to proceed without an interpreter, to which Vess replied that he had represented him before and “he speaks English as good as we do.”
Deere smiled and then corrected Vess, saying, “as well as we do,” prompting laughter in the courtroom.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 17 on 06/30/2013