A couple have been arrested at a Bangkok condominium for growing “magic mushrooms” and selling them online, claiming they could help cure many diseases.
A team of officers from the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) arrested the pair — identified only as Banyong, 40, and Amita, 36 — at their condominium room in Chatuchak district on Monday. They seized 181 plastic bags of hed khee kwai or psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms, weighing 117 kilogrammes, along with mobile phones, an air purifier, humidifier, drying machine, scale, alcohol for cleaning, a thermometer and gloves.
The couple were charged with illegal production, possession and sale of Category 5 narcotics (psilocybin mushrooms), Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thumsuthee, an MPB chief investigator, said on Tuesday.
The arrest followed a tip-off that the couple had been using the condominium room to illegally grow the mushrooms and were selling them online. They reportedly shipped their products via private logistics firms.
Psilocybin mushrooms and other items are seized from a condominium unit in Bangkok. (Photo: Metropolitan Police Bureau IDMB Facebook)
During questioning, Ms Amita told police that she previously worked as a manager of an entertainment venue in the Sukhumvit area. She said she quit her job to live with Mr Banyong, who earned a living selling mineral stones that she claimed to be the same type as moldavites, gemstones created by meteorite impacts. Moldavites are prized by people who believe in the healing properties of crystals.
Mr Banyong said he had spent about two years learning how to culture mushrooms from YouTube, TikTok and Google. The couple eventually decided to grow psilocybin mushrooms, which they sold for 100 baht per gramme. They also provided courses on how to consume magic mushrooms, which they claimed could cure physical and mental illnesses. They charged learners 11,110 baht each.
The suspects also claimed that they had achieved nirvana and were gods with magic powers. They said the stones they sold and the mushrooms they grew were connected to everything. They also claimed they had used the mushrooms to cure a small boy of an unspecified disease.
Police said the couple earned more than 100,000 baht a month selling the mushrooms and providing courses on mushroom consumption.