East Bay man avoids jail for scheme to smuggle hallucinogenic toad venom

OAKLAND — An Oakland resident was sentenced to a year’s worth of supervised release, including a period of house arrest, for a scheme to smuggle forbidden hallucinogenic toad venom into the United States.

Toc Truong, 68, was charged in 2018 with receiving mislabeled drugs, after federal authorities caught him arranging to receive packages that contained the hallucinogen bufotenin, contained in toad venom. It is a chemical found in certain species mushrooms, as well as in the seeds of anadenanthera, a plant native to South America, but best known for being part of certain species of toads.

Bufotenin has led to the common myth that someone can hallucinate from licking the back of a toad or a frog, but it is also known to cause fatalities. As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, Truong admitted to arranging to receive the hallucinogen from a Hong Kong company called Tsang Fook Kee Medicine Company.

It is the third time Truong has been convicted of similar conduct. In 1996 and 2002, he was convicted of nearly identical schemes. The first time led to a five-year probation term, and the second time he was sentenced to four months in jail, court records show.

This time around, Truong was able to avoid jail time in part because of his ailing health. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2013 and because he is reaching his 70th birthday, prosecutors did not ask for jail or prison. The offense carries a maximum 20-year sentence and a $1 million fine.

“Tellingly from the government’s perspective is that Mr. Truong, even in the course of this investigation, was told by law enforcement that his conduct was illegal during the search warrant, but he persisted in his illegal conduct even still just a few months later,” assistant U.S. Attorney Lina Peng wrote in a sentencing memo. “The need to promote respect for the law is very high in this case. The nature of Mr. Truong’s offense poses potentially real dangers to the public, particularly because he was importing medicines containing toad venom, a controlled and toxic substance.”

Truong’s attorney wrote that since being charged this time, Truong has bowed out of the importation business, and is solely focused on his health and family.