APD busts large mushroom grow house in South Austin

Thursday morning, The Austin Police Department took down a psychedelic mushroom growing operation in South Austin.           

Police found the psychedelic drugs in large plastic containers. They found nine ounces of dried mushrooms and 25-35 pounds of wet product. The wet product will be dried out and then weighed.        

“To know that this stuff is going on here just scares me for my grandbabies,” said Lupe Villegas, neighbor.

It's a scary thought for Danny and his wife Lupe. They now know drugs have been within close reach of their family.

“It's unbelievable,” said Danny Villegas.

Thursday morning police uncovered the mushroom grow house at 6304 Berkeley Cove

“That was obviously a mushroom grow once we went in there, we called the experts that are familiar with them and they told us to back out of the house,” said Robbie Volk, Sergeant, Austin Police Department.

Common ways users take the drug is eating it or grinding it up and drinking it. The lab team had to go into the home with protective suits just to be sure their health won't be put in jeopardy.

“Mushrooms usually when they're disturbed they emit a spore and if you breathe that in it can cause you to have health issues,” said Volk.

Police say the house is not very far from a daycare and a church. They say children could have been harmed if they ingested mushrooms that had been thrown in the yard.

“We have a daughter living here and her daughter has asthma really bad,” said Lupe Villegas.

The Villegas family says the tenants who live there are nuisances to them.

“Loud music, people going in and out, a lot of partying,” said Danny Villegas.

The couple says they thought something was going on at the home but never suspected a mushroom lab on this scale. Police say although they run into mushrooms from time to time, this is one of the largest mushroom busts they've had.

“It doesn't surprise me. People when they want to be low key, they want to run an operation like this, they typically want a neighborhood where the people are working, they are nine to five people, they're busy,” said Volk.

Police say by the looks of it, the lab has been going on for quite some time. They have potential suspects at this point, but still, no arrests.