Spanish police bust ‘spiritual retreat’ offering hallucinogenic drugs

Spanish Guardia Civil members stand during an operation in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, July, 5, 2017.

MADRID, Spain — Spanish police said Monday that they had dismantled a group accused of running a “spiritual retreat” that offered hallucinogenic drugs to clients from around the world.

The gang is suspected of operating from a villa in the southeastern town of Pedreguer, charging over 1,000 euros (US$1,160) for multi-day stays that included consumption of ayahuasca, San Pedro cactus and a frog venom known as Kambo.

“The retreats were held in groups of up to twenty participants, who were attended to by six employees of the organization during the ‘astral journeys’,” the Guardia Civil police force said in a statement.

A photo released by the force showed a large room with several mattresses on the floor, along with water bottles and tissue boxes and a guitar leaned against a wall.

Police say the group held several retreats a week without the means to respond to intoxications, and generated hundreds of thousands of euros in undeclared income last year.

It promoted the retreats online with promises of a “mystical” experience and health benefits that drew clients “from around the world, the majority from Europe”.

Police arrested two men and a woman suspected of leading the group and placed five other people under investigation for allegedly acting as “spiritual guides” at the retreats.

They face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and criminal association.

Officers seized 11 litres of ayahuasca, 117 San Pedro cactus plants and several bottles of Kambo, an oozy substance harvested from the skin secretions of the Amazonian giant monkey tree frog.

Police said the substances “can have unpredictable, dangerous effects”.