Morganton vape shops 2 of many hit in large scale investigation

A photo shows the inside of Tobacco World #1 in the Morganton Heights Shopping Center on Wednesday.

Two Morganton vape shops were targeted in a joint operation between local, state and federal law enforcement in the last few months, court documents show.

Morganton Vape, which was located in the Fiddler’s Run Shopping Center, and Tobacco World #1, in the Morganton Heights Shopping Center, both had search warrants executed at their businesses in January, according to court documents filed at the Burke County Courthouse.

They’re just two of about 20 smoke shops in total that have been searched since November, with store locations across the state, Lenoir Police Lt. Z. Poythress told The News Herald.

Victoria Lucaj is the owner of Tobacco World #1 in Morganton and Hudson Tobacco and Vape on U.S. 321 in Hudson. She told reporters Wednesday she felt she and her colleagues were targeted because they are Muslim.

“We feel like we’re being treated unfairly because of the religion we practice, because we have a successful business,” Lucaj said.

But law enforcement officers investigating the stores said that’s not the case. Poythress said it wasn’t until months into their investigation that law enforcement identified Lucaj and her colleagues as persons of interest.

Search warrants filed in connection with the case indicate the investigation started in March 2022 when the department, alongside the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office, started looking into the sale of THC and tobacco products to minors, along with the sale of products packaged to look like commercially available candies like SweeTARTS, Sour Patch Kids and peach rings.

An undercover investigator entered one of the smoke shops in question that month, purchasing a couple of packs of gummies in candy-like packaging.

He also asked the clerk for “flower,” which means marijuana, and the clerk pulled out a small container with a substance that appeared to be marijuana, search warrants said. The investigator purchased 3.8 grams of the substance, and when it was field tested later, it tested positive for THC, search warrants said. That meant the substance was not CBD.

Several months went by until November, when school resource officers in Lenoir voiced concerns to narcotics investigators about students in high school carrying vapes and THC products. Parents and students told detectives the products had been purchased at H&A Tobacco Store, which is on Blowing Rock Boulevard in Lenoir near Dunham Sports, the search warrants said.

That month, state and local law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at the store and ended up seizing more than $10,000 worth of items for copyright infringement, along with a large amount of THC products, the search warrants said. They also seized $27,000 in cash they believed had not been claimed on tax filings.

It was during the execution of this search warrant that detectives made contact with Lucaj, who said she was the manager of the store. Lucaj told investigators the store owner, Mahmood Aldahabi, was out of the country, according to search warrants.

Search warrants said investigators found it odd that Lucaj knew the combinations to all of the safes inside the Lenoir store even though she said she was not the store owner.

They also noted in the search warrants that Lucaj gave a Lenoir address, but told investigators she was headed to the store from Hildebran – the same town where Aldahabi lived.

Investigators said in search warrants that tax documents, along with bulk currency found in the store, led them to believe Aldahabi and Lucaj were trying to move funds without claiming it on their tax filings, sparking further investigation and the involvement of Homeland Security Investigations.

HSI, LPD and the Burke County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Aldahabi’s home in Hildebran. When they knocked on the door, Lucaj answered, wearing nitrile gloves investigators later found in the basement of the home near a conversion lab, search warrants said. Poythress said the gloves weren’t found anywhere else.

The conversion lab was being used to convert THC wax/resin to oil for vape cartridges, according to search warrants. In an interview after waiving her Miranda Rights, Lucaj told investigators the lab was her brother’s and that he would buy product in Florida, convert it in the lab, then they would sell the cartridges in their stores in North Carolina, search warrants said.

That all led to her brother, Frank David Lucaj, 38, of Del Ray Beach, Fla., getting charged with felony manufacturing a schedule VI controlled substance, trafficking in marijuana, conspiracy to sell/deliver marijuana and continuing criminal enterprise, according to arrest warrants filed at the Burke County Courthouse.

Also found during the search of the Hildebran home was a box containing bulk cash. Victoria Lucaj told officers that cash was from cleaning out the stores because she was worried law enforcement would “hit” them, too, search warrants said.

Investigators also revealed in search warrants that BCSO narcotics detectives learned Victoria Lucaj and possibly Aldahabi had purchased several money orders for $1,000 at a local post office. Those money orders were sent to a tobacco and vape shop in Buffalo, N.Y., search warrants said.

Search warrants obtained for bank accounts connected to the investigation at Wells Fargo indicated Aldahabi claimed $16,000 when he filed his 2020 income taxes, but investigators with Homeland Security Investigations ended up seizing a total of about $1.5 million in their investigation, according to federal court documents.

They also seized a cashier’s check for $128,437.41 made payable to US Customs and Border Patrol, search warrants said.

Of the products seized during the investigation, all but one were illegal to be possessed in North Carolina, search warrants said, because of the concentration of a specific strand of THC – delta 9, according to search warrants.

In North Carolina, delta 9 is not legal. Delta 8, another strand of THC, is legal in small amounts.

Victoria Lucaj told reporters she believed the testing the products would have undergone would have caused them to show higher amounts of THC than they would through personal use.

“If a real lab were to test it, of course it would go high because they’re heating it the wrong way,” Lucaj said. “Delta 8 would be converted to delta 9, of course. But if a delta 8 expert, lab experts, were to do it, it’s going to be delta 8 for sure.”

Poythress said law enforcement used a private lab to find out the amount of THC in the products, and lab officials told him heating the products during testing would not cause their chemical makeup to change.

Besides Frank Lucaj, no other charges have been issued in connection with the investigation so far.

Poythress said state level charges are pending in the case.

Federal prosecutors have asked judicial officials for an extension of time to file a forfeiture complaint.

Victoria Lucaj said she plans to fight any legal action and wants to get her belongings back.

Chrissy Murphy is a staff writer and can be reached at [email protected] or at 828-432-8941. Follow @cmurphyMNH on Twitter.

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