Atish Patel
Mayurika S. Patel
Sunil M. Patel
Pravinkumar PatelAt about 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 1, 2014, the Chattooga County Sheriff's Office, Summerville Police Department and the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force executed two search warrants and four arrest warrants that were the result of a several month undercover investigation.
The search warrants were executed at the Smoke Shop located in the Ingles shopping center and the Mountain Top store located in Cloudland.
The Mountain View BP, located on Hwy 27 just north of Trion, was also involved with the investigation and arrest warrants were executed at that location.
During the investigation, agents purchased products, commonly referred to as "synthetic marijuana" from the owners and employees of the stores.
Over the course of the investigation agents made multiple purchases of the illegal drug from the different locations.
The search warrant executed at the Smoke Shop in Summerville turned up four packages of the illegal drug and the owners of the store, Sunil M. and Mayurika S. Patel, were arrested and charged with 2 counts each of sale of a controlled substance.
During the search of the Mountain Top store, located in Cloudland, agents recovered approximately 27 packages of the illegal drug and the operator of the store, Atish Patel, was arrested and charged with 6 counts of sale of a controlled substance and 6 counts of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute.
The owner/ operator of the Mountain View BP, Pravinkumar Patel, was arrested for 2 counts of sale of a controlled substance.
A quantity of cash was seized from the businesses. More charges are expected to come as the illegal drugs that were seized are analyzed by the GBI crime lab.