In federal court, Jim Carlson and several employees of Last Place on Earth were charged in a 54-count indictment accusing them of several violations of federal law.

The indictment says that Last Place on Earth allegedly mislead government authorities with false labels, suggesting the products they sold were not drugs.

It goes on to say the products know as incense were packaged with false labels, failed to accurately include health warnings, and failed to identify the manufacturers of the items.

Carlson and other Last Place employees are also allegedly in violation of the Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act that makes chemicals comprised of a similar structure to illegal chemicals are deemed illegal.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness's comments:

"Federal criminal indictments at the Last Place on Earth!

This is what we have been waiting for - it's the most important action to date to shut down the sale of synthetic drugs in downtown Duluth.

Chief Ramsay, Gunnar Johnson, Nate LaCoursiere, Mark S. Rubin, and many, many others have been working diligently with the feds to bring this forward. We still have a lot of work ahead of us - but we're very pleased that the feds have taken this bold step.

We also hope to hear soon on the LPOE nuisance case before Judge Floerke in the coming weeks - that's the next critical step to taking back our downtown."

We will have more information in our newscasts tonight.

• Cooper selected to succeed Hagen at Riverwood - 5/23/2013
• Man dies in Superior industrial accident - 5/22/2013
• Radisson plans June 6 reopening - 5/22/2013
• Ground broken for new Superior SuperOne store - 5/21/2013
• Magnetation secures expansion financing - 5/21/2013