Two University of Mississippi students turned up dead the same September day — one in a campus dorm, foam around his mouth, blood on his teeth — and the school their parents pay hasn't said a word about what killed them. We now know, thanks to a federal court hearing, not university transparency.
Aidan Hamilton, 18, was found in rigor mortis in his dorm room on Sept. 21. Robert Strang, 20, was discovered unresponsive off campus roughly an hour later, also with white foam around his mouth. A defense attorney revealed in Mississippi federal court Friday that one student died from combined substance use including cough syrup and the other from inhalation asphyxiation, according to Action News 5. The findings have not been formally released in official medical records.
Both students had three synthetic kratom compounds in their systems — mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and 7-OH — all found in SMAX Pseudo-DHM pills recovered at both death scenes, the New York Post reported, citing court records. In August, the DEA issued an emergency order classifying MGM-15 and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl as Schedule I controlled substances, making them illegal to buy or sell. The store kept selling them anyway.
Hamilton bought the deadly pills twice at Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer in Oxford in the days before his death. Strang purchased similar product from another smoke shop about 20 miles away, investigators say.
When an undercover informant visited Puffs on Sept. 24 and asked about 7-OH kratom pills, clerk Yahya Mosleh, 51, unlocked a drawer under the register and pulled out a selection containing mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, according to a criminal complaint. He allegedly told the informant to be careful taking the pills because people were dying from them. He knew. He sold them anyway.
Two store employees — Yahya and his son Islam Mosleh, 18 — face federal drug charges. Yahya remains behind bars; Islam was granted $20,000 conditional bond.
Here is where it gets worse. The store's owner, Amer Alowdi, was indicted for narcotics trafficking in 2022. He fled the country before prosecution and remained a fugitive while his store kept operating and allegedly selling Schedule I substances next to a university campus. How does a business whose owner is a fugitive from federal drug charges keep its doors open? Nobody at Ole Miss, the DEA, or local law enforcement has answered that.
Authorities seized approximately 500 units of kratom and kratom-like products plus suspected THC cartridges, gummies, and pre-rolls when they finally raided the store.
Federal prosecutors told the court the case stems from
