The stores manager and owner both face 40 felony charges regarding the illicit business that received positive reviews on Google despite being illegally operated.
Shroom House is permanently closed after Portland Police Bureau executed a search warrant at the store in December.
Officials say they found over 22 pounds of psilocybin. They also seized $13,000 in cash and made four arrests.
Both the store owner and its manager pleaded not guilty to 40 felony charges, local news reported.
Portland’s Shroom House, a local herbal store that had been illegally selling magic mushrooms and operated for months in 2022, is listed as “permanently closed” on Google following a December police raid.
During the December raid police found over 22 pounds of psilocybin, a hallucinogen from certain types of mushrooms that has only been legalized in medical settings in the state of Oregon. They also seized $13,000 in cash and made four arrests, according to a release from the Portland Police Bureau.
Among those arrested was 32-year-old Steven Tachie Jr., the reported owner of the company that operated Shroom House, officials said. The store’s West Burnside location had been open for business since October 2022, according to Willamette Week, an alternative weekly local newspaper.
Reporters from Willamette Week took mushroom samples from Shroom House to be tested at a local testing facility and found that some products did contain psilocybin while others contained synthetic version of the ingredient.
Police seized over 22 pounds of psilocybin products from Shroom House.
Courtesy of Portland Police Bureau
In December, both Tachie and 42-year-old store manager Jeramiahs Geronimo pleaded not guilty to 40 felony charges in Multnomah County Circuit court, Oregon Live reported.
Police also seized records from the illicit business, which they says will be used as evidence for “further investigation, prosecution of those arrested, and potential additional arrests or citations where appropriate.”
As previously reported by Insider, customers of Shroom House were required to complete applications for the “Shroom House Society” before purchasing magic mushrooms. In the document, they were asked to provide their name and address, Oregonian reported.
Neither the Portland Police Bureau nor the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office shared if they plan to investigate customers of Shroom House.
“This is under investigation. That’s not to say the individuals who shopped there are under investigation, but the whole operation is under investigation,” a spokesperson for Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt told Oregonian.
Just one week before the raid, Shroom House made headlines for claims it was illegally operating a magic mushroom dispensary, Insider reported. As news spread and generated buzz on social media, locals lined up around the block to shop the psychedelic offerings of Shroom House. Some waited in the hours-long line out of pure curiosity.
“I’ve never even seen this stuff before. So I’m trying,” a Shroom House patron told local news prior to the shutdown.
“I understand it may not be legally up yet, but in Portland, it doesn’t seem like people get arrested for anything,” the patron said.