Galveston Hazy Daze smoke shops owner to get back more than $1.6M in seized cash after case dropped
The owner of a downtown Galveston smoke shop will get back more than $1.6 million in cash seized from him after county prosecutors agreed to drop their claim to most of the money one year after a highly publicized organized crime raid.
On Oct. 19, state District Judge Jeth Jones signed off on an agreement to return the money to Shlomi Wolraich, the owner of the island's Hazy Daze smoke shops.The order came four days after the Galveston County District Attorney's Office moved to officially release the funds and said it was dropping the case with prejudice, meaning it can't be refiled.
"I think the DA's office realized that they put the cart before the horse in seizing the assets," said Cordt Akers, Wolraich's defense attorney.
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The agreement brought a quiet end to most of the efforts by authorities to make anything out of a March 2025 raid by the Galveston County Sheriff's Office Organized Crime Task Force on Hazy Daze's three locations in downtown Galveston and along Seawall Boulevard.
The agreement was first reported by the Galveston County Daily News .
The Galveston County District Attorney's Office didn't return a request for comment on Friday.
The store was a fixture among the Strand district's T-shirt shops, and was known for selling novelty items and drug-related paraphernalia. According to court records, the sheriff's office spent months sending undercover deputies to the store to buy items. In one purchase, the deputy asked a store employee for something that contained psilocybin, a psychedelic that is illegal in Texas.
According to records, deputies later sent the product to a Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab, which confirmed the presence of a psychedelic compound.
Wolraich and five employees were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. He and a business partner were also charged with money laundering. The sheriff's office seized bank accounts associated with Wolraich and investigators were seen using crowbars to take cash from an ATM at one of the stores.
Court records later revealed that the objects in question were retail items, including vape pens, gummies, ice cream cones and a "Serious Monkey Bizzness" synthetic urine kit.
Wolraich was accused of profiting off the sale of illegal substances. He pleaded not guilty and his defense attorneys, Akers and high profile defense attorney Rusty Hardin, argued that Wolraich didn't know the products sold in the store were illegal.
Wolraich managed the business from his home in Israel, Akers said.
The case lingered in the court system for a year, with some of the employees pleading guilty to misdemeanors or low-level felonies, for which they received deferred adjudication, a form of probation.
Wolraich, who faced the most serious charges, never agreed to take a plea deal. In March 2026, the district attorney's office dismissed the case against him entirely, citing the "interest in justice." An agreement on the forfeiture case was also hashed out around the same time, but it took months to resolve the legalities of the case, Akers said
The seized assets included funds that belonged to multiple people and businesses, Akers said. Ultimately, Galveston County was able to keep $750,000. Akers said he didn't know how much of that sum belonged to Wolraich.
Other orders related to the Hazy Daze case show the county agreed to return tens of thousands of dollars to other parties. A seized pickup truck was also returned to one of the defendants.
Wolraich didn't seek the return of hundreds of products seized from the store, Akers said.
It was unclear how the end of the prosecution would affect the future of the Hazy Daze stores. The business' website and Instagram page are inactive. Public listings show the stores as being closed – though at least one store has remained open with a large "going out of business" sign hanging over its door.
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This article originally published at Galveston Hazy Daze smoke shops owner to get back more than $1.6M in seized cash after case dropped .
