The owner of a Mississippi gas station where investigators believe Robert Strang purchased synthetic kratom says the pills discovered near the student’s body did not come from his business.
Court records state that Ole Miss students Robert Strang, 20, and Aidan Hamilton, 18, were found dead Sept. 21, with similar synthetic kratom packages located near both bodies. Authorities said Hamilton “could have died due to a Pulmonary Edema,” a finding considered consistent with a fatal drug overdose. Dispatch audio indicated that emergency responders who went to Strang’s residence near campus found him “cold to the touch.”
According to an affidavit filed by a narcotics agent, the packages recovered near the students contained Smax Pseudo-DHM. The package found near Hamilton listed pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15(DHM) as ingredients. The Drug Enforcement Administration temporarily classified mitragynine pseudoindoxyl as a Schedule I substance on Aug. 26, making its sale illegal.
A Mississippi law enforcement officer investigating the deaths wrote that he believed the term “pseudoindoxyl” referred to mitragynine pseudoindoxyl. Laboratory testing to verify the pills’ contents was still pending, court documents said.
Robert Strang and Aidan Hamilton are shown in a split image provided by their families. (Strang family | Kathleen Hamilton/Facebook)
Investigators who interviewed Strang’s roommates learned that he had reportedly bought “Smax” pills from Express Mart #7, a gas station in Water Valley, Mississippi, located just over 20 minutes from the University of Mississippi. An undercover agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics later purchased a similar Smax Pseudo product at the store. Its packaging identified pseudoindoxyl as an ingredient, which the agent said he believed was an abbreviated reference to mitragynine pseudoindoxyl.
Ibrahim Aydah, who owns the gas station, told News Media that he does not think the Smax package recovered near Strang was sold at his store. Aydah said his business does not place price stickers on its products and that the package found near Strang displayed a price. He also said he did not stock the 200-milligram version.
“The package that I see on the news… it wasn’t from my store,” Aydah said. “The package… the Smax is 200. I never carry 200. And it has different ingredients in it than mine.”
Court documents say a clerk at Express Mart told the undercover agent that the store was sold out of the 200-milligram product.
Express Mart #7 is shown in Yalobusha County, Mississippi. (Google Maps)
Aydah said federal agents removed all of the kratom products from his store during a Friday search. He said he wished the federal government had warned him that the products he was selling were prohibited.
“Yes, they took all my stuff. I lost everything, and it’s a law,” Aydah said. “The federal law bans it. I was shocked.”
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Aydah described seeing about 15 police and undercover vehicles at the location. He said he was initially at home before arriving at the station and opening the office for investigators, whom he identified as DEA agents. “I’m a businessman. I’m not a drug dealer,” he said.
When asked what message he had for the families of the two students, Aydah expressed his sympathy.
“I feel sorry for the young kids who lost their lives to an overdose. You know, it hurts. I feel them. Their friends, their classmates, and everyone…you know, he’s a young kid,” Aydah said.
A DEA spokeswoman told News Media that the agency searched the gas station Friday under a warrant and said the action was connected to an “ongoing investigation.”
“The Aug. 26 scheduling order does cover products that list ‘pseudoindoxyl’ on the label,” the spokeswoman said.
Authorities have not charged Aydah or accused him of wrongdoing.
Court records show packages of synthetic kratom products, including Smax Pseudo-DHM and Smax Pseudo tablets, that authorities say were found near where Robert Strang was discovered dead. (Court records)
In a statement issued Wednesday, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics, a division of the sheriff’s office, stopped short of saying that investigators had confirmed kratom itself was found near either student.
“During the investigations, packaging associated with kratom-related products was discovered at both locations,” part of the statement read. The Sept. 25 affidavit reported toxicology results from the medical examiner were still pending.
American Kratom Association Senior Fellow on Public Policy Mac Haddow said Wednesday during a news conference that the specific drug found near both students is illegal.
Haddow pointed out the sale and possession of some synthetic kratom has been illegal federally as of August and illegal to sell or possess in Oxford, Mississippi since 2019, and illegal in Lafayette County, where Oxford is located, since 2021.
News Media reached out to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the DEA for comment.