During the operation, 18 people were arrested. The organization also operated in countries such as France, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Romania, Malta, Mexico, Colombia and Turkey.
Through social networks and websites, they advertised and organized shamanic rituals they promised would improve the physical and emotional health of participants thanks to the consumption of psychoactive drugs.
Using plants from the Colombian jungle, they brewed ayahuasca, a traditional medicine of indigenous peoples of Latin America, which was smuggled into Spain via "mules" or disguised as other products.
Participants also consumed substances such as sapo or bufo, a psychoactive substance secreted by toads; kambo, a poison obtained from the giant monkey frog; and peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus. Consumption was supervised by a doctor and his partner, who fraudulently pretended to be a licensed physician, police said.
The organization's leader, who died during the judicial investigation, styled himself a spiritual master or guru, they said. Some of the detainees, including the leader, were charged with human trafficking, violating workers' rights, smuggling, and infringement of the law on foreigners.
The leader, who was not named in the news release, died at some point during the judicial investigation. Police did not explain the circumstances of his death.
The police also seized 24,000 euros ( over US$26,000) and various foreign currencies in cash; one kilogram of mescaline, the psychoactive element in peyote; more than 60 kilos of ayahuasca; a dataphone (or point-of-sale terminal), computer and audiovisual production equipment; two drones and a high-end vehicle.
Indigenous activists say that the consumption of these substances and brews has become a new source of income for organized crime while exploiting the native communities that traditionally use them. They denounced “plastic shamans” as impostors who pretend to be spiritual guides but are actually in it for the money.
Janet McCloud, an indigenous activist quoted in a study of the plastic shaman phenomenon, was scathing. “First, they came to take our land and water, then our fish and game. Now they want our religions as well,” she said.
“All of a sudden, we have a lot of unscrupulous idiots running around saying they're medicine people. And they'll sell you a sweat lodge ceremony for fifty bucks. It's not only wrong, it's obscene. Indians don't sell their spirituality to anybody, for any price. This is just another in the very long series of thefts from Indian people and, in some ways, this is the worst one yet.”
