Police raided a multimillion-dollar Willy Wonka-like “magic mushroom factory” operating inside a suburban Connecticut home.
An anonymous tip led police to Westen Soule’s front steps in Burlington, Connecticut, where responding officers spotted ventilation equipment throughout his home “consistent with those used in clandestine labs,” state police said.
Soule followed officers to a detached garage, where detectives found “a large mushroom-growing operation” on Thursday, state police said in a press release.
Law enforcement executed search warrants after Soule blocked detectives from entering his home, and they seized about $8.5 million worth of psychedelic mushrooms in various stages of growth, according to state police.
Soule originally denied the mushrooms were illegal, but allegedly changed his tune and admitted that the seized mushrooms were “psilocybin,” which are commonly referred to as “magic mushrooms,” after his lab was found.
The psychedelic drugs look like everyday mushrooms, but they affect all users’ senses; alter a person’s thinking, sense of time and emotions; and can cause hallucinations, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.
It is a popular dance club and rave drug, the Department of Justice said in an informational graphic.
The Connecticut State Police released several photos of the seized drugs that showed Soule’s alleged expansive operation.
Several metal shelves packed with jumbo-sized bags of mushrooms were stacked from the floor to the ceiling and appeared to fill the rooms in Soule’s home.
A partially opened door still in a photo frame shows a ventilator inside a room crammed with alleged illegal drugs.
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Soule was arrested and charged with possession with intent to sell/distribute narcotics and operation of a drug factory.
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He was held on $250,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in New Britain Superior Court on Nov. 16.
The investigation was led by the DEA Hartford Task Force and the Connecticut State Police.
