Watch: Ayahuasca Group Who Had A Centre In Malta Arrested By Spanish Police
A neo-shamanic group that distributed ayahuasca to people across several countries, including Malta, has been broken up by Spanish police
Spanish police said they arrested and charged 18 people on suspicion of being involved in a shamanic organisation that sold psychedelic drugs, including ayahuasca, mescaline and toad venom to its members.
The group is said to have operated out of “epicentres for inner evolution” across Spain but was also active in Malta. France, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Romania, Mexico, Colombia, and Turkey.
Lovin Malta has previously written about how ayahuasca, a psychedelic brew made from boiling specific Amazon vines and roots, had made its way to Malta.
We spoke to a Maltese man who attended a three-day spiritual retreat in Gozo under the direction of a Peruvian shaman about his experience, which cost him €450.
Spanish police started investigating this particular group after coming across adverts promoting neo-shamanic rituals which promised “an improvement in physical and mental health through the consumption of psychoactive substances”.
Investigations led police to the group’s headquarters in the Colombian jungle “where it had the means and raw materials necessary to prepare products” such as its ayahuasca concoction.
Fifteen arrests were made in Madrid and footage of a raid shows officers searching a house, and finding money and what appeared to be bags of pills
Officers seized over 60kg of ayahuasca, 1kg of mescaline and €24,000 in various currencies.
Police allege that the consumption of ayahuasca was often overseen by a doctor and his partner, who posed as a medical graduate, both of whom have been arrested. The group’s leader died during a joint investigation but has been posthumously charged with crimes of a sexual nature and encouraging illegal migration.
Would you ever try ayahuasca?
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