NE Ga police blotter: bicycle bandit in Commerce, police chase in Banks Co

Police in Commerce were, at last report, trying to track down a robbery suspect. They say a man who used a handgun to rob a credit loan agency on Broad Street in Commerce pedaled away on a bicycle. There’s no word on how much cash was stolen.

A high-speed police chase in Banks County ends with two people arrested and a stolen car recovered: Justin Sailors is 26 years old, from Commerce; Alisha Buice is 33, from Maysville. The Sheriff’s Office in Homer says Sailors and Buice are facing charges that include theft and drug possession.

Hirenkumar Patel is co-owner of a vape shop in Gainesville: the 43 year-old Buford man is in trouble with the law in Hall County, caught up in what the Hall County Sheriff’s Office says were illegal drug sales. Drug agents say they seized upwards of a quarter million dollars’ worth of drugs from his store in Gainesville.

From WSB TV…

Investigators in Hall County say a business owner has been illegally selling drugs out of his tobacco shop.

Deputies raided the Discount Tobacco Depot in a strip mall on Shallowford Road in Gainesville earlier this week after receiving a tip about illegal drug sales inside the store.

Inside the store, investigators found 2,100 vials of synthetic cannabinoid vaping liquid. They were packaged as Black Diamond hemp oil and being sold for between $80 and $120 per vial.

They also found 60 tablets of sildenafil, better known as Viagra, that had been cut out of packs for individual sale.

Based on the pricing in the store, the items are being valued at $225,000.

Investigators also found $12,000 in cash and a gun.

One of the store’s owners, 43-year-old Hirenkumar Patel, was arrested and charged with possession of a schedule I drug and possession of a schedule I drug with the intent to distribute, and possession of dangerous drugs.

He was booked into the Hall County Jail and was released on a $3,900 bond a few days later.

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