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Raumeen Shiraz, arrested in July during a raid at his home near Cotswold, pleaded guilty Thursday to possession with intent to distribute methylone – a synthetic stimulant sometimes sold as the street drug “bath salts.”
The 25-year-old Charlotte man also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was accused of illegally possessing four handguns, including a .357-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and a 9 mm Walther PPK semi-automatic handgun.
Shiraz faces a maximum prison term of 20 years and a $1 million fine for the drug charge. The gun charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors said Drug Enforcement Administration agents, assisted by the FBI, seized chemicals used in the manufacture of illegal drugs from Shiraz’s home and storage facilities in Matthews and Charlotte.
Law enforcement agents found four unloaded handguns stored in plastic bags in Shiraz’s storage facility in Charlotte, prosecutors say.
Shiraz was convicted in June 2010 of possession of a firearm by a felon and was placed on probation, according to court documents.
Probation officers contacted the FBI in September 2011 after they did a spot check of Shiraz’s home and found about 30 chemicals in his bedroom that could be used to make narcotics, a DEA agent wrote in an affidavit.
Shiraz told FBI agents that he had obtained a new business license and was doing business as Shiraz Lab Supply, according to the affidavit.
He told the agents he did all his transactions on the computer and made between $80,000 and $90,000 a year shipping chemicals domestically and internationally.
