KISSIMMEE — Laila Meriam Ramdani told deputies that a masked man broke into her apartment, aimed at gun at her, and then shot her in the foot.
Not long afterwards, she was in jail.
If this violent home invasion did happen, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said afterwards, it may have been drug-related. Ramdani was arrested on Wednesday, and charged with trafficking MDMA after reporting the alleged home invasion and shooting incident to law enforcement.
MDMA is better known as Ecstasy, a popular but illegal street drug.
Ramdani, 19, of 2877 Club Cortile Circle in Kissimmee, was also charged with possession of Marijuana under 20 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office got a call about a shooting that had just taken place.
But after arriving at the Club Cortile Circle home, deputies reported that they quickly became suspicious of what Ramdani was telling them. A certain aroma in the home was the first cause for concern.
“When deputies entered the apartment, they could smell what appeared to be marijuana,” noted Twis Lizasuain, public information officer for the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, in her report on the arrest.
Ramdani, though, insisted she was the victim.
Lizasuain said Ramdani told the deputies that she was “home with her roommates when an unknown masked man entered her apartment at gunpoint. The man fired a shot which struck Ramdani’s foot, and she sustained minor injuries. He then fled the area.”
Ramdani’s roommates, though, told deputies there was more to the story, Lizasuain noted.
“Deputies spoke with the roommates, who indicated they knew Ramdani was selling drugs,” Lizasuain noted, adding that while conducting their investigation, deputies found a safe in the home containing more than $7,300 in cash and 292 grams of Ecstasy.
After that, “Ramdani cooperated with the investigation and told deputies she supplied a buyer (with) MDMA just prior to the (shooting) incident occurring,” Lizasuain said. “The buyer agreed to provide her money at a later date.”
Ramdani was arrested and booked into the Osceola County Jail.
Ecstasy has become a popular drug. Some users have reported that as soon as they take the pill, they start getting chills and feel their body tingle. A lot of Ecstasy users like to take the drug at clubs where they’re exposed to flashing strobe lights and music, because it serves as an emphatic enhancer.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that Ecstasy is a synthetic, psychoactive drug that “produces feelings of increased energy, euphoria, emotional warmth and empathy toward others, and distortions in sensory and time perception.”
Initially popular in nightclubs and at “rave” dance parties, NIDA noted that today this drug affects a “broader range of users and ethnicities.”
Ecstasy can play a major role in sexual arousal for users, since studies on rats and humans have shown it raises their hormone levels.
“Some heavy MDMA users experience long-lasting confusion, depression, sleep abnormalities, and problems with attention and memory, although it is possible that some of these effects may be due to the use of other drugs in combination with MDMA (especially marijuana),” the agency’s Web site notes.
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