INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - Court documents allege that drugs were being sold from an Indianapolis shoe retailer.
Officers spent part of Monday at a former high-end sneaker store in Castleton Square Mall, 6020 E. 82nd St.
“They had an ATM in there and police spent 45 minutes with a sledgehammer banging into that,” said Matt Hanlon, manager at Collector's Den across from the now-closed Circle City Sole store.
According to an affidavit, police raided the store and allegedly found “heroin hidden in a sliding compartment of a wooden display case."
Evidence also included a high-speed currency counting machine.
"That's scary because my daughter and I we go over there frequently, so I would not want to have that stuff around my daughter," said mall shopper Danielle Edwards.
"Pretty wild that that would be something that would go on in the mall," said Cameron Hemphill, who works in the mall. “Friendly people. Just doing their job. Obviously we now know what they were really doing but they didn't seem to be any trouble at all. You wouldn't expect it from them."
Cameron said he had been a customer at the store. So was Terrell Winfield.
"I went and looked at a few of the shoes because they were awesome, were some nice shoes,” Winfield said. “I didn't know what was going on like that but that's pretty sad to be going on in this community. "
The probe is tied to an investigation in Muncie that included the arrest of a Delaware County sheriff’s deputy last week. Seventeen people were arrested, including store owners Danny Terry and Anton Holland and Terry's girlfriend Alysia Muhr.
Terry is the man who allegedly implicated his uncle in the drug trade, sheriff’s deputy Jerry Parks.
The store owners allegedly carried almost $80,000 in cash on two airplane flights between Indianapolis, Reno and Los Angeles this summer. Investigators believe they were laundering the drug money.
"Everybody around that end of the mall was surprised, but it's not something you're looking for so there's no reason to be suspicious of anybody,” said Hanlon.
Simon Property Group, the mall’s owner, gave Eyewitness News the following statement:
"Simon prides itself on maintaining a family-friendly environment at our properties. The allegations regarding this former tenant are shocking. The store's lease has been terminated, and we are cooperating with law enforcement authorities on the investigation."