HALLUCINOGENIC MUSHROOM RAID IN RURAL OREGON

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- A total of 140 police and federal agents raided 20
rural homes yesterday in a crackdown on what the local sheriff called the
biggest hallucinogenic mushroom ring in the nation.

There was no immediate word on arrests.

Working from the Josephine County Fairgrounds, police hit 15 homes in the
Williams area and five more in the Illinois Valley.

"There's gobs of (police) out there," LaVonne Hildebrand said from the
Williams General Store. "We don't know what's going on."

In the planning stages for two months, the raids capped a three-year
investigation by the Josephine Interagency Narcotics Team and the Internal
Revenue Service, authorities said.

Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel said the raids would put a minor damper
on the local trade in psilocybin mushrooms.