Law Enforcement Officers Raiding Tulsa Stores Suspected Of Selling K2

The Tulsa County Sheriff's office raided more than a dozen convenience stores Tuesday, cracking down on sales of synthetic drugs.

The most common is called K2, synthetic marijuana. Investigators said it's much more powerful than pot.

The Sheriff's office made arrests at several stores after agents went in to buy it and search for it with a warrant. They believe stores were in it together, a conspiracy to sell illegal synthetic drugs.

More than 150 officers spread out to 13 convenience stores Tuesday morning and started making arrests.

List Of Convenience Stores In Crackdown

The people in handcuffs were clerks that authorities said were selling synthetic drugs - chemicals that can be smoked.

It's packaged as incense and used like marijuana, and often sold to children.

"So they think it's packaged like M&M's in a safe clean environment and it's the same product every time and it's not. It reacts differently in different people,” Captain Tim Albin said.

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office coordinated the investigation that took almost three years, and involved state and federal law enforcement.

10/7/2014 Related Story: Tulsa County Sheriff's Office Leads Crackdown On K2 Sellers?

“We are getting phone calls at our division from schools, from parents and from communities about the attraction these stores were becoming, based on their sales,” said Major Eric Dalgleish, TPD.

The stores are scattered across the city, but half are in north Tulsa, one in west Tulsa, and several on the east side.

The common denominator is that all were small, independent stores. Only a couple of the stores were associated with a brand name, like the Shell station at 11th and Yale.

Drug agents said at some stores K2 was sold from under the counter, for cash only.

The impact is widespread.

“We're used to dealing within our shelters, across the city, substance abuse issues, but this was different,” said Steven Whitaker with John 3:16 Mission.

Homeless service agencies and the jail have seen the result of the recent spike in synthetic drug use.

"So what are you getting when you buy this stuff, what was added to it before you bought it? You don't really know and all of this synthetic cannabinoids are between 100 and 800 times more potent that the marijuana you smoke in a joint,” said Jail Physician, MD Tracy Loper.