Police Find Chocolate-Covered Magic Mushrooms During Traffic Stop

A traffic stop for a lights violation in July led to an Iowa City man receiving much more serious charges for allegedly possessing psilocybin mushrooms.

According to Iowa City Police criminal complaints, a traffic stop was made on 1:04 a.m. on July 21 at the intersection for a vehicle that was "driving with no headlights or taillights on at night."

A driver of the vehicle, unnamed in the complaints, was removed from the vehicle for a operating while intoxicated investigation and meanwhile consented to let authorities search him, which revealed "controlled substances," according to the complaint.

Police used this as probable cause to search his vehicle, in which John Dale Arneal, 26, of Iowa City, was a passenger. After Arneal consented to let officers search his backpack officers in addition to the probably cause, the officers allegedly found 14 individually wrapped chocolate-covered psilocybin mushrooms. According to the complaint, Arneal admitted to the chocolates containing the psychedelic mushrooms.

Arneal was charged with possessing the mushrooms with intent to deliver and possession of the drugs without a valid drug-tax stamp, both class D felonies. He was booked into the Johnson County Jail this morning at 1:47 a.m. according to online jail records. His bail has been set at $15,000.