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After Man Dies In Mystic Toad Venom Ceremony, Spanish Porn Star Charged With Manslaughter
Nacho Vidal described himself as a mentor “guiding people through a process of change.”
A Spanish porn star has been charged with manslaughter for his alleged involvement in a psychedelic toad venom ceremony that resulted in a man’s death, police said Wednesday.
Investigators tracked down 46-year-old Nacho Vidal, whose birth name is Ignacio Gonzalez, during an 11-month probe into the death of fashion photographer Jose Abad, according to a police report acquired by The Guardian.
Abad died in July 2019 in a “mystic ritual” that involved inhaling hallucinogenic vapors from the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad, according to the report. Vidal and his family commonly inhale these vapors at their home, investigators said Thursday, according to the The Daily Telegraph.
The toad secretes a toxin to ward off predators that, when dehydrated, contains the psychoactive compound 5 -MeO-DMT, or DMT, which has hallucinogenic properties, according to Rolling Stone.
In a 2016 video on his YouTube channel, Vidal talked about the many benefits of the ritual, which he said helped him “reconnect with his soul” after a long battle with depression, according to the Telegraph.
He described himself as a mentor “guiding people through a process of change.”
Two other unnamed individuals, a man and a woman, were arrested along with Vidal, according to The Guardian.
This isn’t Vidal's first brush with the law. In 2012, he was one of 80 people arrested during a Spanish crackdown on the Chinese mob, which had allegedly been involved in tax evasion and money laundering schemes, according to the BBC.
Vidal works in the adult film industry. His self-written IMDb page describes him as "a Spanish-born super-stud whose swarthy good looks and wild-eyed approach to his work have kept him very busy."
The page lists him as an actor with hundreds of credits, including “Nacho Invades America” and “Nacho Vidal: The Sexual Messiah 2.” Vidal also runs an online store, which sells dildos, candles, and penis perfume bottles.
His lawyer, Daniel Salvador, told the Spanish news agency Efe that Abad’s death was entirely accidental and Vidal did not act as a shaman, according to The Guardian.
“Nacho is very upset by the death of this person, but he considers himself to be innocent,” he said. “With all due respect to the dead man and his family, Nacho maintains that the consumption [of the venom] was completely voluntary.”
