Anyone transporting ayahuasca must know that attempting to avoid detection with bottles or labels of known consumer products may flag you as a smuggler.
Until now, we were not aware of any criminal conviction for ayahuasca transportation in the history of the USA. This all changed when in less than three months, two cases were filed and successfully prosecuted. Vargas and Fisher had relatively modest occupations (Vargas was a janitor, Fisher was a metal welder), and were carrying ayahuasca in shampoo bottles. Both cases were treated as misdemeanor offenses, despite the amount of ayahuasca seized, and both were released without incarceration. They were lucky because it could have been worse. However, it wasn’t easy for either of them. Vargas spent 10 months of agonizing uncertainty, potentially facing years in jail while wearing an embarrassing and uncomfortable ankle bracelet. He now will have to do one year of weekly parole reporting, with periodic drug testing, and will not be able to travel beyond a limited radius around the Tampa area. Fisher, on the other hand, estimates he lost about $7,000 between fines, expenses, and his abandoned car; but the most painful of all was the lifetime ban on returning to the USA, something that he was expecting to continue enjoying frequently. As first offenders, they both will remain tainted with a criminal case on their previously clean records.
https://chacruna.net/breaking-news-the-first-two-ayahuasca-convictions-united-states/Both men were transporting ayahuasca for ceremonies.
