Popular Youth Sports Coach Busted for Bath Salts While at Work - at His Porn Shop

Providence, RI - A popular youth sports coach was arraigned in federal court Friday on charges of selling bath salts from two businesses he owned in the Providence suburbs.

More alarming to many parents in the community than the drug arrest was the news of what sort of businesses the man had run for years: an adult entertainment store and another that sold drug paraphernalia.

Glen Lonardo, 48, led two lives, say residents of Cranston, R.I., a suburb of Providence. He coached football and cheerleading for children in grades 4 through 8, and headed a popular girls softball league.

He was also the owner of X-Citement Video and Smoke Shop, an adult entertainment store in nearby West Warwick, and Buddha's Bazaar, a drug paraphernalia shop in Cranston. His arrest followed a year-long investigation by local authorities into the sale of bath salts from the businesses. 

Bath salts is a generic term applied to a variety of synthetic drugs.

Court records allege Lonardo passed one such drug – Alpha-PVP – to a West Warwick detective on Jan. 17, at his Cranston shop, Buddha's Bazaar.

According to court records, Cranston Police began their investigation in 2013, after receiving complaints of apparent drug overdoses and erratic behavior in the general vicinity of Buddha’s Bazaar.

The investigation, including surveillance of the area and alleged undercover purchases of a bath salts concoction called “Nuke," resulted in a raid of Buddha's Bazaar in August 2013, police say. The raid yielded nearly 200 packets of bath salts, with names like Krush, Frenzy and Blast.

Soon after, police raided Lonardo's other business, XCitement Video and Smoke Shop in West Warwick, where they seized more drugs. Lonardo was arrested on state drug charges at the time. The federal charges were brought this week by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerard B. Sullivan.

News of Lornardo's first arrest shook up the working class community south of Providence and prompted protests from some in the community who claimed to have expressed concerns about Lonardo's behavior well before his arrest.

"They never had complaints, since the rumor was it would all fall on deaf ears," a commenter named Aaron Hernandes wrote on the Cranston Patch at the time. "How could you lose all these softball girls and never figure out why?"

Other parents said they registered complaints with the organization but nothing was done.

Jim Dillion, the president of the sports league Lonardo coached for, Cranston's League for Cranston's Future, told Patch at the time:

"We've never had a complaint about his performance in our organization. He does an incredible amount of public service with his position. He put in many hours as a volunteer both coaching as well as organizing the league."

"We feel bad we won't have him working with us."