OXFORD, Miss. — Federal prosecutors have charged a vape shop clerk and his 18-year-old son with distributing an illegal kratom product, court records show, in a case that grew out of the deaths of two University of Mississippi students found with the same pills in their rooms earlier this fall.

Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and his son, Islam Yahya Mosleh, 18, were each charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, prosecutors said this week. Both worked at Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in Oxford, home to Ole Miss, according to CBS News, which reviewed the federal affidavit.

The case traces back to Sept. 21, when Ole Miss freshman Aidan Hamilton, 18, of Englewood, Colorado, and junior Robert Strang, 20, of Atlanta, were found dead in separate locations, one on campus and one off. Investigators recovered opened packets of a kratom product labeled "Smax" in both students' rooms.

An informant, a warning, an affidavit

Three days after the deaths, a confidential informant working with the Drug Enforcement Administration bought kratom pills directly from Mosleh Sr. at the shop, according to the affidavit cited by CBS News. As he sold the pills, Mosleh allegedly told the informant to be careful, because:

"People were dying from them."

A DEA agent filed a sworn affidavit the next day, Sept. 25, and the father and son appeared before a federal magistrate judge last week before charges were formally announced Thursday.

Investigators say one ingredient found in the seized "Smax" packets — and in the product recovered from Hamilton's room — was 7-hydroxymitragynine, a concentrated, opioid-like kratom derivative the DEA emergency-scheduled as a Schedule I substance on Aug. 25, making it illegal to sell or possess nationwide for at least two years. The action targeted synthetic, high-potency 7-OH products rather than raw kratom leaf, which remains legal in most states.

Oxford has banned the possession, distribution and sale of kratom products within city limits since 2019. Puffs Vape has drawn law enforcement attention before: its owner, Amer Alowdi, was indicted on narcotics trafficking charges in 2022 and fled the country before he could be prosecuted, authorities have said.

Investigators have been careful not to draw a direct line between the kratom and the students' deaths. "We have not confirmed kratom caused these deaths," Oxford and university officials have repeatedly cautioned, even as they urged students to avoid the substance "out of an abundance of caution," according to an Associated Press report from the days after the deaths. Toxicology results, which could establish a cause of death for both students, were being expedited and had not been publicly released as of this week.

Federal prosecutors have signaled the investigation remains active and that additional charges are possible as the toxicology findings come in and agents trace how the product reached campus.