DEA operation leads to Borderland raids of local shops

A nationwide operation by the Drug Enforcement Agency leads to raids of local smoke shops in the Borderland.

Agents went into businesses looking for synthetic drugs commonly marketed as “bath salts” and “spice.”

Beginning Wednesday morning, DEA agents, the El Paso Sheriff’s Office and theEl Paso police raided Higher Level, Cool Arrows, Green Effect, Phat Glass in Las Cruces and The Smoke Shop in Sunland Park.

ABC-7 stopped at several of the shops, andboth the Green Effect and The Smoke Shop were closed.

In east El Paso at Cool Arrows, an employee who did not want to be identified said he had just opened the store when agents and officers walked in with their weapons drawn.

“My initial thought was that we were getting robbed,” said the Cool Arrows employee.

He said officials seized about seven boxes and two safes.

Employees of nearby businesses said it was alarming to see so many law enforcement vehicles in the parking lot.

Law enforcement officials said two people were arrested during Wednesday’s raids.

One witness told ABC-7 she saw two men taken in handcuffs from Green Effect in east-central El Paso.

The El Paso DEA office is scheduled to address the raids in a news conference Thursday morning at its headquarters.