iStockphoto / Chalabala
The Dead & Co embarked on their final tour together just over one month ago. Over the weekend, they played two concerts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, better known as SPAC, in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The current lineup of Dead and Company musicians has been together since 2015 when John Mayer joined the band and clicked with the group including Bob Weir and Mickey Hart from Day 1.
SPAC is a legendary venue in the jam bands scene and brings in people from all across the country but particularly the Northeast for shows. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center has a capacity of 25,000 fans including 5,200 covered seats by the stage (~20K on the lawn).
That is a LOT of wookies looking to get spun on Shakedown Street prior to their last Dead & Co. run. Which might explain the astronomical amount of drugs Saratoga Springs Police apprehended following Sunday’s show.
On Facebook, the Police Department wrote “K9 Vas and his handler, Officer Arpei, assisted the New York State Park Police with a search warrant of a vehicle pursuant to an investigation initiated during the Dead and Company concert this weekend.” They then shared the haul that was uncovered in the drug bust…
Items seized:
PCP:
53 grams (1.87 ounces)
Psilocybin Mushrooms:
2.42 pounds (1.09 kilos)
LSD:
1,538 doses of LSD
Cocaine:
200.3 grams (7.065 ounces)
Methamphetamine:
356.2 grams (12.565 ounces)
MDMA:
244.7 grams (8.632 ounces)
Ketamine:
1.372 pounds and 3 Ketamine Hydrochloride bottles
$29,135 US Currency
9 Nitrous Oxide Tanks
1 Black flack vest with level 3 plates
MDMA, Amphetamine, Adderall, Amitriptyline and other unidentified pills
Scales and narcotics packaging material
They also shared photos of the drug bust:
For anyone wondering, the ‘9 Nitrous Oxide Tanks’ were most likely to fill up balloons after the concert. Leaving a show at SPAC, one often hears the familiar ‘pssshhhhhh…. pssshhhhh’ song of nitrous tanks filling up balloons for wookies to buy on the lot before police arrive.
The rest of the drugs are self-explanatory, albeit, in such large quantities it’s hard to imagine they were planning to unload all of that in one night.
It is also not readily apparent what the street value of this total haul is but it would be worth a literal fortune if broken up and sold in small quantities.