New charges have been approved for a Mason couple accused of running a large scale "bath salts" operation in Warren County.

The Warren County Drug Task Force hauled in 17,140 packages of "bath salts" �'' with a street value of $685,600 �'' from the Mason business. The pair turned themselves in at the Warren County Jail last week. They have allegedly been selling the banned substance under names like "Brilliance," "Sparkle" and "Super Grow Plant Food,".

"They are by all accounts the largest traffickers of bath salts that we've certainly come across in Warren County and anecdotally, they are huge traffickers in not just Warren County but all of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee," he said. "This is a highly sophisticated business and there is a lot of documentation of the criminal enterprise they were engaged in."

Lewellen of Mason, was indicted by a grand jury on March 23 for safe cracking, grand theft, aggravated trafficking in drugs, aggravated possession of drugs and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. Fornshell said since Lewellen allegedly worked for the couple, he assumed there was a lot of cash in the safe. He and his partner then decided to cover up the robbery by reporting the loss to his boss and the police. When police decided the story was concocted, Lewellen allegedly implicated his bosses.

"As they're arresting Lewellen, he has possession of a duffle bag that he wants police to give to Eli," he said. "In the duffle bag are packets of bath salts, large quantities of bath salts."

Further police investigation led to an office on Mason-Montgomery Road where Davis and Ohayon were running a Far East Imports "bath salts" operation. Fornshell said they get the ingredient from China, package them here, and distribute them to their sales force. They allegedly sell to gas stations, head shops and the like. He said they also give their sales people free samples to hand out on the street, with the plan that people will get hooked and return to buy more, at $40 a packet.

Bath salts were banned by the legislature in Ohio last year. The innocuous sounding drugs can produce hallucinations, a high similar to cocaine and are highly addictive, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Ohayon and Davis allegedly produced lab tests showing the substances are not bath salts. Fornshell said the drug task force also had a lab test the packages and found the powdery substances "substantially similar in chemical composition" to a number of different controlled substances typically found in bath salts.

The bath salts business owners face a possible 122 years in prison if they are found guilty of on all 14 felony counts for aggravated trafficking and possession of drugs, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and possession of criminal tools. Fornshell said it is unlikely that amount of time behind bars would be imposed.