Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...A Fallbrook man admitted in federal court on Friday to dosing his children with psilocybin mushrooms, a hallucinogenic drug that alters states of consciousness and creates vivid sensory experiences, and recruiting them to produce and distribute the drug.
In his plea agreement, Randal Vance, 43, admitted that two of his children were 9 and 11 years old when the conspiracy began at two locations, Ash Street in Fallbrook and Lilac Road in Bonsall. According to the agreement, he began dosing them with capsules in October 2023 every other day, increasing to every day by 2024.
He also admitted to providing another son, who was 12 at the time, with psilocybin mushrooms to sell to his friends.
His two co-defendants, his wife, Rebecca Vance, 42, and friend Keir Ceballos-Rivera, 34, also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Vance pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to use a minor to produce and distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, two counts of distributing a controlled substance to minors and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
He also admitted in his plea agreement to maintaining two websites and an Instagram page where he sold whole- and freeze-dried psilocybin mushrooms, chocolates and capsules containing them.
According to prosecutors, investigators carried out search warrants at the two locations on Oct. 4, 2024, and found about 204 pounds of fresh psilocybin mushrooms, 53 pounds of dried mushrooms, and 18 pounds of a growth medium called inoculated substrate to grow the psilocybin mushrooms, as well as equipment used to grow, harvest and process them.
At the Lilac Road location, law enforcement also seized six firearms.
Vance was arrested later that day. According to the plea agreement, after the arrest, he, his wife and Ceballos-Rivera conspired to destroy evidence by deleting phone messages and removing the websites.
Vance is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18.