Russian national held in Goa for growing 'magic mushroom'

Panaji, March 29: The police have arrested a 33-year-old Russian national for allegedly planting psilocybin mushrooms at a rented premises in North Goa district and seized drugs valued at Rs 1.70 crore from his possession.

Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic substance found in certain types of mushrooms, commonly referred to as 'magic mushrooms'.

The police said the Anti-narcotics Cell (ANC) had received information that the accused person had planted psilocybin mushrooms inside a rented premises at Arambol in North Goa.

“We have arrested Evgeny Morkovin (33), a Russian national, for possessing 218 gm psilocybin mushrooms, 7.9 kg mushroom buds, 2 kg ganja, and 150 psilocybin mushroom spores (seeds) valued at Rs 1,69,47,000/ in the international market,” an ANC personnel said.

“The accused was not only selling the banned narcotics, but had also planted psilocybin mushroom buds in numerous glass jars for growing the contraband that weighed about 7.93 kg valued at Rs 1.58 crore,” the police said.

The police have also seized equipment such as syringes, glass jars, specially fabricated plastic containers, and other articles that the accused used to grow psychedelic mushrooms.