Psilocybin mushroom is a group of mushrooms which contains various psychedelic compounds.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday claimed to have busted a racket which supplied ‘magic mushrooms’ to the city’s party circuits and educational institutions. According to NCB sources, this is the first time the banned narcotic has been seized in an eastern Indian state.
Psilocybin mushroom, also known as a psychedelic mushroom, is a group of mushrooms which contains various psychedelic compounds.
According to the NCB, three persons, all from affluent families, have been arrested in this connection. Two of them have MBAs, while the third owns an upscale restaurant in south Kolkata.
Around 20 grams of ‘magic mushrooms’, as well as LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) blotting papers and MDMA (also known as Ecstasy) were recovered from them.
“Of the three arrested, Vivek Sharma and Rishav Sharma are brothers. The third person arrested in this connection is Deep Chakrabarty, a disc jockey and owner of a posh restaurant in South Kolkata. They were arrested late Saturday from their residences at Alipore and Elgin Road in south Kolkata,” said DK Srivastava, NCB’s regional director, (eastern region) at a press conference in Kolkata.
“Previously there had been one or two incidents of magic mushrooms being seized from southern or northeastern India. But this is the first time we have seized the same in an eastern Indian state,” said an NCB sleuth.
According to the NCB, the accused, in their statements, had said that they purchased the drugs from a Netherlands-based agency through the Internet using Bitcoins. The consignments were meant to be supplied to party circuits and students of reputed colleges in the city.
NCB’s regional director Srivastava said that generally, suppliers purchase magic mushrooms at around Rs 1,000 a piece and sold them at rates ranging from Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000 a piece.
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