Drugs hit a new high, ‘Magic mushroom’ grown at Arambol

PANAJI
In yet another major raid, the Anti-Narcotic Cell (ANC) of Goa Police busted a psilocybin mushroom plantation from a rented premise at Arambol and arrested a Russian national. This new type of drugs, popular among youngsters, induces altered thinking and hallucinations.

Evgeny Morkovin (33), the Russian national was arrested for not only running the operations but also cultivating psilocybin mushroom buds in glass jars. The accused was caught with 218 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 7.9 kgs of mushroom buds, 2 kgs of Ganja and 150 nos of psilocybin mushroom spores (seeds) all worth Rs 1,69,47,000 in the international market.

The ANC official informed that they worked on a tip-off and intelligence inputs that a  Russian national was actively involved in supplying psilocybin mushrooms more popularly known as “magic mushrooms”. The information was further developed followed by continuous surveillance.

“The Russian’s movements were also closely monitored. We raided the rented premises of the accused at Madhlawada, Arambol after confirming the inputs.  During the search, the police seized a commercial quantity of psilocybin mushrooms worth Rs 8.72 lakh and 2 kgs of Ganja worth Rs 2 lakh,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Nerlon Albuquerque said.

It was during the raid that the ANC further discovered that the accused was not only selling the banned narcotics but had also planted psilocybin mushroom buds in numerous glass jars that weighed about 7.93 kgs valued at Rs 1.58 crore.

Albuquerque informed that around 150 mushroom spores (seeds) which the accused had procured to plant and grow more of the contraband and equipment such as syringes, glass jars, specially fabricated plastic containers and other articles used to grow the psychedelic mushrooms were also seized.

“In recent years, there has been a growing interest in psilocybin, the psycho-active ingredient in “magic mushrooms” or “shrooms”, which is banned under the NDPS Act. 

It has been noticed that the use of psychedelics like psilocybin, the psychoactive component of shrooms, has been growing in recent years, especially among youngsters as psilocybin causes altered thinking and hallucinations,” the officer said warning of action against the culprits.