The Microdot Gang: The Rise and Fall of the LSD Network That Turned On the World

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Money was incidental. LSD had such a profound effect on me and my life that I wanted everybody to experience it,” he explained. He and his similarly unkempt colleagues set up watch from the cover of an industrial caravan. But without any of the technology today’s police take for granted 24/7 surveillance was not without its challenges in the 70s – particularly when Welsh wildlife got in the way. But animals could be useful too. After observing a frenzied period of comings and goings at the Carno mansion – as Kemp and Bott appeared to be getting rid of equipment – Dai received a tip-off that the house was now empty.

Yet as far as former Detective Inspector Dai Rees – one of the principal Welsh officers in Operation Julie – was concerned, LSD created more problems than it solved. The biggest drug bust in British history occurred in the early hours of 25 March 1977: 800 officers made 120 arrests and seized a staggering 6,000,000 tabs of LSD. The raids focused on two acid manufacturing centres: one hidden in an isolated farmhouse in deepest Wales, the other in a suburban house on a leafy residential street in south-west London. The scientist confirmed in a great moment of joy that there was pure LSD in all our samples – including the frog and the mole,” Dai recalled. While Dai Rees was grappling with the drug issues of west Wales in the early 70s, Richard Kemp had stumbled upon a method of creating the purest LSD the world had ever seen. He set up a laboratory in the basement of a mansion 50 miles away in Carno, bought for him by his American friend Paul Arnoboldi.

They knew Kemp was in Wales. They knew he drove a red Range Rover. All that was needed was evidence to link Kemp to the crime. The breakthrough came in 1975 on the road from Aberystwyth to Machynlleth. There was pressure from the police top brass to bring a hugely expensive operation to an end. More pressingly, the tabloid press had got wind of a major drugs bust that was about to take place in Wales. Lee also instructed two undercover officers to infiltrate the small community of Llanddewi Brefi to target Alston Hughes. [4] London connection [ edit ] The raids focused on two acid manufacturing centres: one hidden in an isolated farmhouse in deepest Wales, the other in a suburban house on a leafy residential street in south-west London. Between them they supplied acid to most of the UK, Europe, America and beyond. Tabs bearing their logo were recovered as far away as Australia. Radio Wales’ Commissioner, Jeremy Grange, says, “True stories are often more bizarre than fiction and Acid Dream presents a compelling example. The series is brilliantly written and soundscaped and we’re delighted that two great Welsh cultural icons, Rhys Ifans and Gruff Rhys, are involved in creating this imaginative and entertaining account of the story behind Operation Julie.”

The Stones and Jimi Hendrix liked a wild Welsh weekend, and there are apocryphal anecdotes of Bob Dylan staying for six weeks and enjoying the mellifluous poetry of Welsh-speaking farmers’ conversations. This was one of the most intriguing parts of the story – the genuine belief among those involved in the manufacture and distribution of the drug that LSD could be a Good Thing.

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How Green was the Psychedelic Revolution? Acid King Richard Kemp breaks his 45-year silence January 6, 2023 The figures of Operation Julie are as mind-blowing as a hallucinogenic trip. As is the fact so much of this war on drugs took place on the deeply unlikely frontline of Tregaron, Carno and Llanddewi Brefi. Kay, Adam (2022). Undoctored. Chapter 14: Orion Publishing Co. p.156. ISBN 978-1398700376. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location ( link) The first issue in writing about the defendants in the Operation Julie trial is what to call them. They have been referred to as the ‘Microdot Gang’, but this is a misnomer, because a split in 1973 produced two separate and independent organisations which shared a common origin. The LSD conspirators have also been called the ‘Operation Julie Gang’; but that is anachronistic because it wasn’t until 1976 that the police launched Operation Julie. Hence I will use the term, LSD Underground, which is more accurate and descriptive.

One of the challenges any writer presenting this history has to deal with is the age-old problem of participants offering differing accounts of the events and their interaction with each other. These accounts are often motivated by self-justification or simply the wish to tell a good story. It is necessary therefore to be sceptical on the one hand of the ‘official’ agenda which called to account those who broke the law and supposedly threatened public morality; and on the other hand the counter argument that the ‘acid adventure’ was a noble cause which just happened to be illegal – and lucrative. Corroboration – or rebuttal – has been employed whenever possible and in appropriate measure. As Dai Rees and Terry Stokes gathered crucial evidence of the production side of the LSD ring other officers were closing in on the distribution side. LSD’s arch-druid, however, was Timothy Leary, an American psychologist who founded a religion of mind-expansion called the League for Spiritual Discovery. Its catechism was “Turn on. Tune in. Drop out”. And its sacrament was LSD. Read More Related Articles Later, after a police tip-off in October, a further 1.3kg of LSD crystal was discovered, buried beneath Kemp and Botts kitchen.Two undercover officers were assigned to infiltrate the small community of Llanddewi Brefi to target Alston Hughes. Busted trying to smuggle cannabis into Canada, Thomas traded information in an attempt to win a lighter sentence. Naming Kemp, Bott, Solomon and a “man called Henry”, he shared his knowledge of the “biggest acid lab in the world”.