A Mobile man was sentenced to four years in federal prison this week after admitting his role in a large-scale operation distributing spice, a synthetic drug that had drawn increasing law enforcement attention across the Gulf Coast in recent years.
Harshadbhai Patel, 39, received a 48-month federal prison sentence during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Mobile. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles Butler Jr. also ordered Patel to serve three years of supervised release once he completes his prison term.
The case traces back to October 2013, when the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office arrested Patel during a traffic stop. Deputies searching his 2014 Porsche Cayenne during that stop found 50 bags of spice along with $95,543 in cash, according to court records.
Investigators did not stop at the vehicle search. Officers went on to search Patel’s Mobile apartment, a convenience store connected to him, and a second apartment he kept in Pensacola, Florida. Those searches turned up thousands of additional packets of the synthetic drug, with court records showing a total of 3,805 packets of spice confiscated across all the locations.
Patel pleaded guilty in May to a federal charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a Schedule I controlled substance, the classification federal law applies to spice and similar synthetic cannabinoids.
As part of his sentencing, Patel was ordered to forfeit more than $338,000 to the federal government. That figure includes the $95,543 seized from his SUV during the initial traffic stop, a $5,000 casino chip found in his possession, and $237,699.53 that had been sitting in one of his bank accounts. Patel was also ordered to forfeit the Porsche Cayenne itself.
The case represents one of the more significant spice distribution prosecutions to come out of the Mobile federal court system in recent years, both in terms of the volume of product seized and the scope of the financial forfeiture. Federal and local investigators had worked jointly on the case following Patel’s initial arrest, tracing the operation from a single traffic stop to properties in two states.
Spice, sold under various brand names, mimics the effects of marijuana but has been linked to serious health complications, prompting federal and state governments to place many of its chemical variants under stricter drug schedules over the past decade.