ORLANDO, Fla. – An undercover operation by agents with Florida’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco last month has led to the arrests of clerks at two separate smoke shops in Orlando.
News 6 has reviewed court records that revealed the purpose of the operations at East Side Smoke and Vapor Krew was “to attempt the purchase of a nitrous oxide product being sold in an illegal manner.”
Michael McKellar, 35, and Sebastian Cook, 25, each face a charge of selling/distributing 16 grams or more of nitrous oxide.
Nitrous oxide is a colorless gas — often used for sedation and to help make whipped cream fluffy in dispensers — that can be used to induce a feeling of intoxication.
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The arrest affidavits for McKellar and Cook, respectively, showed that ABT agents conducted the operations on the same day, Aug. 27, less than two hours apart.
Shortly before 1 p.m. that day, undercover agents arrived at East Side Smoke on East Colonial Drive, according to Cook’s affidavit.
Cook’s affidavit states the agents captured him on a recording device. One of the agents asked Cook, who worked at the shop, for information about a 320-gram canister of a nitrous oxide product.
“It can be used to make whipped cream but some people for recreational use inhale it,” Cook said, according to his affidavit.
The affidavit alleged that Cook then advised the undercover agents about how to use a balloon in conjunction with the product to “prolong” the effect of the nitrous oxide.
Cook stated that nitrous oxide is a “super festival music drug, I can say,” according to the affidavit.
“Whenever you suck it in with the balloon and blow it back into the balloon, you’re not wasting any of it,” Cook said, according to the affidavit, which also alleged that Cook showed an agent latex balloons that were for sale alongside the display of nitrous oxide tanks.
One of the agents purchased the 320-gram canister, which, according to the affidavit “clearly states it contains 320 grams of nitrous oxide.”
“The defendant never mentioned the nitrous oxide was solely intended for culinary or legal purposes only,” Cook’s affidavit reads.
A similar sentence can be found in McKellar’s arrest affidavit, which focused on Vapor Krew, where he worked.
Undercover ABT agents entered that shop — also on East Colonial Drive — about an hour after the operation at East Side Smoke.
With a recording device, agents asked McKellar about a nitrous oxide product and how it was used.
The affidavit alleged that McKellar relayed how to use the device to ingest to get “high.”
He also allegedly said that nitrous oxide is “big in the ‘Rave’ scene and at concerts, and gives users a sixty-second incredible high.”
Like Cook, McKellar also allegedly mentioned how a balloon can be used to inhale a nitrous oxide product.
The affidavit stated that agents bought two nitrous oxide tanks (325 grams each).
“It should be noted that the weight of the nitrous oxide is listed in large, bold prints on the package,” the affidavit said.
Neither smoke shop was willing to make any employee or manager available for an interview, but an employee who answered the phone at one the shops Friday dismissed the legitimacy of the undercover operations, characterizing them as “entrapment.”
Earlier this year, News 6 spoke with the family of Margaret Caldwell, a 29-year-old Lake County woman who was found dead outside a smoke shop following a prolonged addiction to nitrous oxide.
Caldwell’s family filed a lawsuit in February against nitrous oxide manufacturers and Central Florida smoke shops, seeking an end to the sale of nitrous oxide products.
The two shops at the center of the arrest affidavits were not named in the aforementioned lawsuit.