Synthetic drug press conference in Mechanicsburg

Cumberland County DA David Freed gives a press conference Friday at the Mechanicsburg Borough Council chambers office after the Cumberland County Drug Task Force raided the Magical Incense Shop in Mechanicsburg. The force confescated thousands of items that investigators believe to be synthetic designer drugs and related paraphenalia from the shop. Freed said the confescated material will be tested and if it is synthetic drugs charges will follow. Jessica Tezak, PennLive

More than a dozen people walked past the parked police cars Friday morning up to the door of the Magical Incense Shop that was guarded by police officers with a simple question:

"When's the shop open?"

One of the men even tried to reach past Mechanicsburg Police Chief David Spotts to get to the door, Spotts said.

The downtown Mechanicsburg shop didn't open Friday. And Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed wants to keep the shop -- which he alleges has been selling synthetic designer drugs for years -- closed permanently. Freed closed the store under a temporary injunction signed by Cumberland County Judge Albert Masland. A hearing on the injunction will be held Tuesday, Freed said.

"I hope it sticks," Spotts said. "It will make the borough safer. It will make it a better place."

The Drug Task Force confiscated thousands of items investigators believe to be synthetic drugs, Freed said. The material will be tested in the coming weeks and months. If it proves to be synthetic drugs, Freed said the shop's owner, Theodore W. Zeiders, 45, of Mechanicsburg, could be charged under the state's designer drug law. If that is the case, prosecutors will also initiate a civil forfeiture case against Zeiders, Freed said.

Zeiders had not been charged Friday. He was not at his Mechanicsburg home and could not be reached for comment.

At a press conference, Freed showed off some of what investigators seized from the shop, including a big bag of what investigators believe is synthetic marijuana, Binger Clean (lab tests have found other batches of Binger Clean bought from Magical Incense to be chemically similar to methamphetamines, according to the search warrant) and something called a Liquidizer, which was sold with syringes. A single dose of Binger Clean sold for $60, Spotts said.

Material purchased from Zeiders' shop in the past has tested positive as synthetic drugs, Freed said.

Officers also seized more than $10,000 in cash, various paraphernalia, including a Scooby Doo bong with four hoses for four smokers, a tomahawk-shaped pipe and false-bottomed chips and soda containers Spotts said were for hiding drugs.

According to the search warrant, a number of people have been hospitalized after overdosing on products purchased from Magical Incense. A number of the would-be customers trying to get into the store Friday morning had young children with them, Spotts said. One was wearing an ankle monitor.

in the past, Zeiders has said his store complied with the law. After the designer drug law went into effect, Zeiders told PennLive he had handed any illegal inventory over to police. The "jewelry-cleaning liquid" and other products he restocked the store with were perfectly legal, Zeiders said at the time.

Police disagree.

More than a year ago, Freed said officers warned Zeiders that he was selling designer drugs. He kept selling them, Freed alleges, including to undercover officers.

Those designer drugs undermine any claims Zeiders might make about the bowls and bongs being used to enjoy tobacco, Freed said.

"We can play all the games that we want talking about smoking tobacco," Freed said. "These are not for smoking tobacco. The purpose of these devices is to ingest illegal drugs."