City News
York Regional Police raided a multi-faceted psilocybin mushroom operation on Wednesday, including an illegal growing operation in Puslinch.
The investigation started in August when officers executed a search warrant at a residence in Whitchurch-Stouffville, east of Newmarket, a small town in the Greater Toronto Area. Investigators found evidence of laboratories located in Hamilton and Puslinch.
Around midnight on Wednesday, officers executed a search of properties in Hamilton and in Puslinch on Victoria Road South.
In Hamilton, police seized around 100 pounds of magic mushrooms and an undisclosed quantity of cash. In Puslinch, investigators found magic mushrooms growing in bags.
Police estimate the street value of the drugs at around $500,000, though Detective Sargent Mike Cook of the York Regional Police Guns, Gangs, and Drug Enforcement Unit noted that it’s difficult to place a value on mushrooms in their growing stages.
Cook said the lab in Puslinch was a production site divided into several rooms, including a drying area for the plant.
“The York Regional Police has seized more psilocybin this year then I have ever seen in my entire career, and I don’t think for one minute that there’s a coincidence between the amount of magic mushrooms were seizing and the amount of stores that are popping up all over Ontario,” said Cook.
Illegal magic mushroom dispensaries like FunGuyz, who have operated brick-and-mortar locations in Kitchener and Cambridge, have been raided numerous times by local authorities.
