OXFORD, Miss. — Two University of Mississippi students found dead Sept. 21 had packaging for kratom-related products near them, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics said. Investigators have since arrested two vape shop employees.
Kratom has been banned in the city of Oxford since 2019.
The cause of death for Aidan Hamilton, 18; and Robert Strang, 20, has not been announced. Toxicology reports have been completed, but have not yet been released to the public.
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What happened
Hamilton, a freshman from Englewood, Colorado, was found in a residence hall Sept. 21. About an hour later, police were dispatched to a house near campus, where they found Strang, a junior from Atlanta.
In a Sept. 22 news release, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics reported officials had not confirmed the deaths were connected and had no confirmed information that kratom or any other substance contributed to either one. However, the unit did issue a call to Mississippi lawmakers to hold hearings on synthetic kratom products.
Court documents describe the tablets found near both students as Smax Pseudo-DHM. The affidavit lists mitragynine pseudoindoxyl and MGM-15 among the ingredients on the package found near Hamilton.
The DEA added both ingredients, along with MGM-16, to the list of Schedule I drugs on Aug. 26, less than a month before Hamilton and Strang’s deaths. The agency reported its scheduling action targets synthesized products and those with elevated 7-OH concentrations, not natural kratom.
Arrests and investigation
Bank records linked Hamilton to purchases at Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store, less than a mile from campus, including one the day before he died, according to a DEA affidavit. However, court documents did not directly establish that the products found near Hamilton came from the vape shop.
On Sept. 24, a confidential informant asked a clerk at the shop for pills containing 7-OH, and the clerk produced a package from under the register, the affidavit says. The clerk allegedly warned the informant that “people were dying” from the pills. Agents then raided the store and seized more than 500 units of kratom, valued at about $1,800, along with THC cartridges, gummies and other suspected narcotics.
Police arrested two employees, Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and his son, Islam Mohamed, 18. They were first booked on state charges and now face federal charges of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Neither is accused in the students’ deaths. The store’s owner, Amer Alowdi, left the country in 2022 while facing a drug trafficking indictment, Fox News reported.
Strang bought his tablets at Express Mart #7 in Water Valley, about 20 to 30 minutes from campus.
Kratom, 7-OH and what responders should know
Kratom comes from the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa, a tree native to Southeast Asia. Its two main active compounds, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH), interact with opioid receptors in the brain. It is sold as powder, tablets, capsules, gummies and dissolvable strips in gas stations, convenience stores, smoke shops and online. Low doses can stimulate, while high doses sedate.
The leaf contains only trace amounts of 7-OH. The FDA has called products with added or enhanced 7-OH “novel potent opioid products” and reports none has been proven safe or effective for any use. DEA laboratory findings indicate commercial products often contain more 7-OH than natural kratom.
Symptoms: Reported effects of kratom use include nausea, sweating, itching, seizures and hallucinations. In acute toxicity cases, clinicians have reported respiratory depression, seizures, arrhythmias, liver injury and altered mental status.
Treatment: A 2026 review of case reports and other literature found that kratom toxicity can produce an opioid-like presentation with variable response to naloxone. Because naloxone wears off faster than mitragynine, breathing problems can return after an initial reversal, according to the review, and clinicians should consider extended observation. In one case report, Poison Control advised that rebound hypoxia can occur 12-24 hours after ingestion.
