Spain’s National Police raided a sham ritual this week and dismantled a criminal network that had been performing phony shamanic ceremonies in Ireland as well as other countries.
A total of 18 people were arrested during the operation. The fake organisation operates in France, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Romania, Malta, Mexico, Colombia and Turkey also.

“They’ll sell you a sweat lodge ceremony for fifty bucks,” said expert Janet McCloud.

The group gave gullible people the opportunity to “improve” their physical and emotional health by taking psychoactive drugs during fake ceremonies. The criminal network used social media to lure Irish people in.

According to a report issued by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, the group produced their own ‘ayahuasca’, a traditional medicine of indigenous peoples of Latin America, which was smuggled into Europe via “mules”.

Participants consumed substances such as ‘sapo or bufo’, a psychoactive substance secreted by toads; kambo, a poison obtained from monkey frogs; and peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus.

Fake doctors were over-seeing people downing the dubious concoctions.

The group’s ragtag leader keeled over and died when cops began investigating him. He styled himself as a spiritual master or guru, police announced. No details of his cause of death were given.

The organisation was charged with human trafficking, violating workers’ rights, smuggling, and infringement of the law on foreigners.

Spanish cops also seized €24,000, mescaline, the psychoactive element in peyote; more than 60 kilos of ayahuasca; cell phones, computers and audio-visual production equipment; two drones and a top class vehicle.

Police footage of the raid showed officers searching a house and finding money, bags of pills and a room filled with beds. At one point, a police dog can be seen sniffing out a wallet containing sums of cash.

Indigenous activists say that the consumption of these odd drugs has become a new source of income for organised crime whilst exploiting native communities and gormless Europeans.

They denounced “plastic shamans” as impostors who pretend to be spiritual guides but are only interested in greed.

Incidentally, a University of Melbourne survey looking at ayahuasca found 70pc of users experienced physical and 55pc mental health adverse effects after consuming the drink.

Within half-hour of consuming ayahuasca tea, people reported experiencing hallucinations. Research suggests ayahuasca can change activity in certain areas of the brain.

Acute physical health adverse effects were reported in the ayahuasca dangers study by 69.9pc of the sample, with the most common effects being vomiting and nausea (68.2pc of participants), headache (17.8pc) and abdominal pain (12.8pc).

Janet McCloud, an indigenous activist quoted in a study of the plastic shaman phenomenon said: “First, they came to take our land and water, then our fish and game. Now they want our religions as well,” she said.

“All of a sudden, we have a lot of unscrupulous idiots running around saying they’re medicine people. And they’ll sell you a sweat lodge ceremony for fifty bucks. It’s not only wrong, it’s obscene.

“Indians don’t sell their spirituality to anybody, for any price. This is just another in the very long series of thefts from Indian people and, in some ways, this is the worst one yet.”

Advertisements have also appeared on online trying to lure Europeans to South America for similar, fake ceremonies.