A San Diego man described as fixated on mushrooms admitted that he gave psilocybin mushrooms to his 9- and 11-year-old children so they could undergo altered states of consciousness.
Randal Vance pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to multiple drug-related charges. Prosecutors say he ran an operation in the Fallbrook and Bonsall areas of San Diego County that involved children in the cultivation, production and distribution of psilocybin mushrooms.
According to prosecutors, Vance administered mushrooms to his own children on a daily basis.
Officials also said Vance supplied psilocybin capsules to his older son to sell to the boy’s young friends. His wife, 42-year-old Rebecca Vance, was allegedly involved in the business, along with a friend, Keir Ceballos-Rivera.
The three allegedly marketed whole, dried and freeze-dried mushrooms through an Instagram account and two websites, psillyrabbit.com and psillyrabbitmushrooms.com. Authorities said the group also made chocolates infused with hallucinogenic mushrooms.
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On Oct. 4, 2024, law enforcement agents searched two business locations tied to Vance in Fallbrook and Bonsall. At the Ash Street location, investigators seized 204 pounds of fresh psilocybin mushrooms, 53 pounds of dried mushrooms, 18 pounds of inoculated substrate and processing equipment.
At the Lilac Road location, authorities recovered 25 pounds of dried mushrooms, five pounds of capsules and six unsecured firearms, including a Glock 34, a Walther P22, a Henry Survival AR-7, a Browning 30-06 and two revolvers. Loaded magazines were found near the pistols.
At the time of the raid, the drugs had an estimated street value of more than $200,000.
Vance is facing up to 40 years of imprisonment for exploiting minors in narcotics operations, another 40 years for distributing controlled substances to children and decades more for distribution and obstruction of justice.
