Major khat bust in Fairfax

An alert patrol officer in Fairfax County is responsible for what is believed to be the county’s largest-ever seizure of khat, an illegal drug popular in East Africa and along the Arabian Peninsula, Post reporter Josh White reports on the Crime Scene blog.

The officer noticed what appeared to be a drug sale in a parking lot along Columbia Pike in the Falls Church area on Saturday night and stopped two men allegedly involved in the transaction. The officer determined that one of the men was trying to sell khat to the other and found 21 pounds of the drug at the scene, police said.

A subsequent search of one suspect’s home turned up another 111 pounds of khat, for a whopping total of 132 pounds of the flowering evergreen shrub, police said. It appears all of it was destined for the area illicit drug market.