In the mid-1970s, 800 officers from 11 police forces launched a groundbreaking operation to take down the world’s most prolific LSD ring, hidden in rural Wales. Codenamed Operation Julie, the two-and-a-half-year investigation saw undercover cops posing as hippies in the village of Llanddewi Brefi, where acid was being manufactured and shipped to 100 countries, supplying an estimated 60% of the world’s LSD.
It became the largest drug bust in history: 120 arrests, £100 million worth of LSD seized, and £800,000 uncovered. The case has since been credited with kickstarting the modern war on drugs and signalling the final collapse of 1960s counterculture.
At the centre was a mysterious psychedelic cult founded by an idealistic American academic, determined to “change the world” through mind-expanding drugs. But as production and profits grew, the mission mutated into a global criminal empire. Some members disappeared. Some died. Many refused to talk.
From renowned producers Raw, this gripping series tracks down the people who lived it from former insiders and the detectives who brought them down to those who took the acid and the locals who watched it unfold. Together, they separate myth from reality and uncover the truth behind one of the most extraordinary drug conspiracies ever exposed.