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by WILL FOLKS
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Agents of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and their law enforcement partners conducted “coordinated enforcement operations” this week targeting illegal intoxicants sold at vape shops across the Palmetto State, multiple sources familiar with these operations confirmed to FITSNews.
Potentially hundreds of charges against dozens of defendants are expected to be filed in the coming days in connection with this statewide sting – with multiple defendants scheduled to appear at a mass arraignment at 10:00 a.m. EST on Thursday morning (December 11, 2025) before S.C. circuit court judge Heath Taylor.
Following this mass arraignment, S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – whose statewide grand jury division is leading the prosecutions tied to these raids – is scheduled to address the charges in detail at a press conference tentatively scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EST on Friday morning (December 12, 2025).
Neither SLED nor Wilson’s office had any official comment on the operation ahead of Friday’s press conference.
According to our sources, SLED agents and local law enforcement officers raided “dozens of stores” earlier this week – seizing products and cash. News reports from Darlington, Florence, Greenville and Surfside Beach offered glimpses into some of the law enforcement activity, while the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO) posted details from one enforcement action on its social media pages.
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GCSO indicated its raid – which featured assistance from numerous local law enforcement partners – was part of an “on-going investigation involving the distribution of illegal marijuana products.”
“This investigation was launched, in part, due to complaints of high school age children using similar products,” the agency noted.
While it is unclear whether the Greenville County raid was tied to the broader statewide operation, it’s clear law enforcement and prosecutors in the Palmetto State – led by assistant attorney general Jennifer McKellar – are undertaking a major, coordinated push to shut down synthetic cannabinoids and other illegal intoxicants sold at vape shops.
“These products are incredibly dangerous,” SLED chief Mark Keel said at a legislative hearing on the issue held last month. “These users have no idea what they are ingesting.”
Keel is absolutely correct on that count. Back in September, FITSNews published an in-depth story on the case of 29-year-old Zachary East Elias of Columbia, S.C. Elias is facing two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in connection with a graphic shooting that took place at Budiman’s Smokeshop & Art Gallery in Rock Hill, S.C. at approximately 9:40 p.m. EST on December 4, 2024.
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RELATED | ‘INVOLUNTARY INTOXICATION’ LED TO FATAL SHOOTING
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According to police, Elias entered the store wearing no shirt and shoes – armed with an assault rifle. After inquiring as to the whereabouts of the “mushroom man,” he opened fire – killing 27-year-old Celci Johnson (an employee at the smoke shop) and 49-year-old Emad Saadalla (one of its customers). Saadalla’s wife also sustained a gunshot wound – but survived the shooting.
Elias’ attorney, Alexandra Benevento, said the shooting was the result of “involuntary intoxication induced by mislabeled and deceptively marketed products sold as legal substances.” Specifically, the products which led to his were “marketed as containing only lawful mushroom derivatives” and were “explicitly promoted as a CBD-style legal alternative” by the smoke shop.
Unbeknownst to Elias, subsequent tests on the chocolate bars conducted by SLED revealed they contained Psilocin, “an illegal, dangerous Schedule I controlled substance.” After consuming the bars, Elias allegedly “suffered acute drug-induced psychosis”
“Zach’s alleged actions were not the product of malice, planning or criminal disposition, but rather the direct and involuntary effect of ingesting a mislabeled, illegal product,” his bond motion (.pdf) noted.
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While Keel highlighted the dangers associated with unregulated substances being sold at vape and smoke shops, his testimony also laid bare the challenges associated with regulating these substances.
“They’re everywhere,” Keel said, adding the current regulatory framework was “unenforceable.”
“We don’t have the manpower to seize, store and analyze the quantity of THC products that are in our state today,” Keel told lawmakers.
Clearly, though, police are attempting to more aggressively enforce state-mandated levels for the amount of Tetrahydrocannabinol (i.e. “THC,” the principle psychoactive component of cannabis) permitted under current state hemp laws. They are also zeroing in on the distribution networks behind some of these products, sources familiar with the focus of the ongoing investigation told FITSNews.
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Critics of the enforcement action say police and prosecutors are trying to “arrest their way” out of a problem that ought to be addressed legislatively – accusing them of pandering to the politicians in the S.C. General Assembly rather than conducting a meaningful crackdown.
“They want to look like they’re doing something to give the legislature cover for not doing anything,” a source skeptical of the new law enforcement push told FITSNews. “This is a political, (cover your ass) clickbait prosecution – not a real crackdown.”
This skeptic further accused SLED and the attorney general of “going after the wrong people” – saying those who distribute mislabeled products are culpable, not vape shop owners who sell them based on these false representations.
The statewide sting comes as South Carolina lawmakers are considering the passage of a new regulatory framework for hemp-infused products. Meanwhile, federal lawmakers took action against “marijuana-adjacent” products last month – although these new federal prohibitions do not take effect until November 2026.
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised of the latest developments related to this investigation, including Thursday’s arraignment and Friday’s press conference at the attorney general’s office.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
Smoke shops – just the latest version of the “video poker blight” designed to separate stupid people from their money. However, unlike video poker, the crap in vapes can kill you. Like video poker, these largely unregulated shebeens need to be regulated out of business.
“Law and order” Alan Wilson going after vape shops while sucking up to the guy who pardoned the Honduran president who brought 400 tons of cocaine into the US. Way to go, big guy.
You are absolutely correct! Alan Wilson is cherry picking low hanging fruit! Bless his heart!
The 2018 farm bill prevents them from doing more than performative little raids like this because the states are pre empted from action because it would violate the commerce clause. Notice they didnt come near Charleston County. Mark Keel has done his best for 30 years and he CANT STOP SHIT because he is on the wrong side of the law. He is the Maurice Bessinger of law enforcement. Somebody get that guy a white suit and a horse!
“Alan Wilson going after vape shops while sucking up to the guy who pardoned the Honduran president who brought 400 tons of cocaine into the US.”
Capitalism protects capital, it protects the owner class. Not much different than the Sackler family never facing jail time even though untold numbers of their victims lose their livelihoods if not their lives every year.
We’ll never know how many times the United States government colluded with the very entities that manufacture and distribute drugs, inside America or out, but we very well know for a fact that the number isn’t zero.
I can remember when we had cigarette machines in the student break areas of my large, Midlands area public high school. My kids can barely believe it when I tell them. But it would appear that did less harm than the voodoo level shit the youth are putting into their lungs with this vape stuff from China and Vietnam that has who-knows- what laced into it. If you got a vaping kid who just can’t get off of a stimulant, just let them to smoke old fashioned american cigarettes instead of vaping. Disgusting habit? Sure. But they’ll never make them go crazy and kill people.
It’s remarkable watching this unfold, because it highlights something many South Carolinians have been quietly warning about for years:
When mislabeled or deceptively marketed “legal” products slip through the cracks, regular families pay the price — not just in criminal cases, but in civil and family courts, too.
I say this as someone who followed every instruction on a product marketed as legal, safe, and compliant under state law… and the result was devastating. It triggered a chain reaction in the legal system that should never have been possible — including emergency hearings based on unreliable or non-validated toxicology results, evidence presented without proper scientific oversight, and life-altering decisions made before the facts were understood.
So while this statewide sting may feel sudden, it actually reflects a much bigger, long-ignored problem:
South Carolina has no coherent, enforceable framework for ensuring the accuracy, validity, or safety of many substances that are being sold to the public and then used — sometimes wrongly — as evidence in court.
And when you combine mislabeled products, unregulated toxicology practices, and inconsistent judicial safeguards, the outcome isn’t just public health risk.
It’s families being torn apart, reputations destroyed, and rights stripped without due process.
The enforcement actions happening now underline what many of us have been trying to report for years:
The system wasn’t prepared, wasn’t equipped, and wasn’t listening.
And people have already been harmed long before these raids ever took place.
I hope this moment finally sparks a broader conversation about consumer protection, forensic reliability, and the real-world consequences of letting regulatory gaps linger unchecked. Lives have already been impacted — far beyond the walls of any vape shop.