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John Sirico, 48, of Tafton, PA was taken into custody after a warranted search at the Nutrition Zone turned up 61 bottles of catnip cocktail, 29 bottles of human growth hormone (HGH) and 13 bottles of Prohormones, Police Chief Anthony Manna said.
Also seized were seven high-capacity handgun and rifle magazines and 20 bottles of a mixing agent, the chief said.
Ordinarily used to sedate felines, catnip cocktails have similar properties to gamma-hydroxybutyric acid – better known as GHB, experts say.
Police began tracing a path to Sirico’s store after responding to a report last July of a man who was “dancing, yelling and generally acting abnormally” in front of a hair salon in the same strip mall as the Nutrition Zone, Manna said.
The man was “having a variety of mood swings, including being very friendly one moment, then being confused and angry the next,” the chief said.
Officers found him carrying six bottles of the catnip cocktail, along with the receipt from Nutrition Zone, Manna said.
Then, four months ago, a caller alerted police to an erratic driver on westbound Route 46 who, after being stopped, “was acting irrationally, was extremely confused and unaware of his surroundings,” the chief said.
He, too, was carrying several bottles of the cocktail, Manna said, adding that the driver had to be hospitalized.
Then, on Feb. 26, Fairfield police responded to Retro Fitness on eastbound Route 46, where they revived an unresponsive man with Narcan.
He was carrying a bottle of the catnip cocktail, the chief said.
“It seems quite suspicious to me that an individual looking for something to sedate a cat with would come to a Nutrition Zone and not a veterinarian, to purchase a product that wasn’t even advertised or on display for the public to see,” Manna said.
While not listed as a federal scheduled controlled dangerous substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the solution is a scheduled drug under New Jersey statutes.
“This is a very dangerous product and it appears its improper use is on the rise,” Manna said.
Sirico, he said, was “well aware that he should not be selling [it].”
Sirico was sent to the Essex County Jail pending a detention hearing on drug possession and high-capacity magazine possession counts.
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