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CALGARY -- Mounties have harvested a massive crop of magic mushrooms and charged two people after a traffic stop near Lake Louise.
Two Calgary men were charged following seizure of 68 kg of psilocybin, worth about $700,000, in cardboard boxes after a truck was stopped by Mounties for an "equipment violation" last Thursday, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Patrick Webb.
Webb said an RCMP investigator, who has 15 years of experience, told him the largest seizure of the same drugs was about 15 kg several years ago.
"This is quite larger than that one," said Webb.
"He cannot recall of any other seizure this size in Western Canada."
As police interviewed the truck driver and its passenger they figured a further probe was required.
A dog unit team was available in the area and was later brought in to check the truck and officers found the massive amount of drugs in the bed of the pickup truck.
Since the seizure, the drugs have been re-cased in large plastic containers which netted 11 bags.
Magic mushrooms are hallucinogens, in the same drug group as LSD.
These are drugs that act on the central nervous system to greatly affect the way one feels and thinks.
Webb said investigators believe the load was destined for Calgary, where it would have been possibly distributed in the area and throughout Western Canada.
The truck was eastbound on the Trans-Canada Hwy. coming from B.C., where the magic mushrooms were possibly grown by an organized criminal group, said Webb.
The magic mushrooms appear to be in the same age which makes investigators believe they were not simply gathered and picked out of the woods.
Shawn Lutz, 27 and Scott Gowing, 31, have both been charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and trafficking of a controlled substance.
Lutz, who is known to police for a separate drug matter, was released on bail.
Gowing, who didn't have police record, was also released on bail.
Both are slated to appear in a Banff court Nov. 16.
RENATO.GANDIA@SUNMEDIA.CA