Spanish police bust 'spiritual retreat' offering hallucinogenic drugs
The gang is suspected of operating from a villa in the southeastern town of Pedreguer, charging over 1,000 euros ($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 organisation 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.
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News.com.au
12-08-2025
- News.com.au
Spanish police bust 'spiritual retreat' offering hallucinogenic drugs
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 ($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 organisation 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.
ABC News
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VOICEOVER: It is anarchy in parts of Spain, France and the UK right now as migrant gangs from Northern Africa and the Middle East violently tried to take over and intimidate innocent people … - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 Hullo, welcome to Media Watch, I'm Linton Besser. And tonight, we cross to a continent of white people under siege by black people and by brown people tearing at the very fabric of society with all manner of deadly weapons. EUROPE HAS FALLEN Anarchy in Europe as North African and Middle Eastern gangs senselessly terrorise innocent victims - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 That's the headline on a Sky News report published to YouTube last month which sounded the alarm on a migrant crime wave engulfing Europe, including in Spain where: VOICEOVER: … a man with a baby was callously threatened by a knife wielding gang for simply walking down the street. - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 In the Catalonian capital meanwhile, the horrors continued: VOICEOVER: … the cobblestone laneways are no longer filled with people enjoying their vacations, but with hundreds of Muslim men chanting. - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 Better cancel your trip to France too, because over there it's even worse: VOICEOVER: France is also in a migration mess with violence running rampant in the streets, like at the Fête de la Musique last month, where hundreds of young people were stabbed with syringes … - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 Hundreds stabbed with syringes? And Sky News selected a very authoritative expert to point out all the black people: VOICEOVER: Online commentators were in shock with the footage, with this person saying 'This is France?! This looks like Ghana, not France.' - Sky News Australia, YouTube, 15 July 2025 This exquisitely nuanced piece garnered almost 40,000 comments, many of which were just as erudite, linking the video's many crimes not just with our well-known Jewish overlords but also to the 'great replacement' theory which motivated the 2019 Christchurch massacre. Although, scattered through the vitriol, a handful of Sky's audience had a somewhat different analysis: the biggest race baiting video I've seen so far on these YouTube streets lol - Sky News Australia, YouTube comment, @RenzelYoung, 27 July 2025 Which was a bit like stepping back out of the looking glass because this video has to be one of the most appalling and incendiary things I've seen in journalism for a very long time which, it should also be said, was also wildly wrong from the very first frame. This is not police beating back a violent migrant gang, but police beating back a violent mob of far-right vigilantes. And this video of a man threatened by a knife was in fact filmed in 2023, with no evidence the group was a 'migrant gang'. Likewise this video, rather than a migrant 'take over' of Barcelona, it captures Ashura, an annual day of commemoration for the Islamic faith. And on it goes. The mass syringe attack was in fact a mass panic triggered by a social media hoax with not a single confirmed case, and many of the reports of syringe stabbings in several locations quickly attributed not to migrants but mosquitos. Oh, and this vision is not a migrant takeover either, as dramatic as it might look, but the aftermath of the UEFA Champions League final in which fans clashed with each other and with les flics. As for this appalling internet comment, was it taken from a witness at the scene or an expert in migrant crime? Don't be silly, it's just a mean, deliberately racist remark from some far-right American keyboard warrior. And is Spain, to take one of Sky News' case studies, actually grappling with a surge of migrant-driven crime? Not even close. 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What has fallen however, what has plummeted through the floor in this piece of drivel, is any sense of responsibility and the public interest.
