Two arrested after mushroom gummies are handed out to kids on Halloween - The Independent

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Two men were taken into custody Wednesday after allegedly distributing psilocybin-infused “magic mushroom” gummies to at least 15 young trick-or-treaters in California’s Ocean Beach on Halloween night.

San Diego Police arrested Michael Goff, 80, and Shawn Michael Foster, 45, following a Wednesday morning search warrant served at a residence on the 2100 block of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Both men were booked into the San Diego County Jail on suspicion of being convicted felons in possession of firearms and ammunition.

Although direct charges related to the drug distribution have not yet been filed, officers located a bag of psilocybin gummies inside the residence identical to the packages turned over by parents, as reported by NBC 7 San Diego.

The incident occurred Saturday evening when children between the ages of 1 and 6 retrieved packages from a bowl left on the home’s front porch. Local parents Frank Cary and Cameron Hunter, who were walking a few yards behind their children, noticed the unusual packaging and intervened.

Cary told NBC 7 San Diego that he took one of the bags from his 2-year-old child after noticing a design featuring a giraffe with melting text. Inspecting the label, he found a listed dosage of 5 grams along with text reading “psilocybin mushrooms.”

“So... today I actually found drugs in my kid's Halloween candy,” Hunter wrote in a Facebook post. “5 grams of shroom gummies. Me and another dad confronted the house. 90s were right, I guess.”

Parents confronted a resident at the scene before filing a police report and handing the packages over to police, where later testing confirmed the presence of psilocybin.

When approached at the home on Monday, a resident identifying himself as Shawn Barger disputed the parents’ account, claiming his wife was merely confused when confronted by neighbors on Saturday night.

During the execution of the search warrant, detectives seized an illegally possessed rifle, a partially assembled pistol, dozens of live ammunition rounds, over 2.5 pounds of cannabis, more than 25 grams of crystal methamphetamine, a digital scale, packaging materials and sales ledgers.

A San Diego code compliance investigator also responded to the property to evaluate unpermitted living structures on the site.

The San Diego Police Department's Narcotics Unit and Crime Stoppers are seeking additional information from the public regarding the case.