A millionaire chemist recruited a Concord man to find stolen LSD. It was a decision all would deeply regret

OAKLAND — Joel Dowen paced back and forth on the second floor of his Concord residence as DEA agents waited anxiously outside.

In the middle of the night, federal agents had burst into the home on Quiet Circle, spray-painting his front door camera and smashing the door with a battering ram. Dowen, who’d later say he didn’t know it was a raid, fired a shot, striking an agent’s shield. As a woman inside walked out to agents in the garage, prosecutors say Dowen barricaded himself upstairs and weighed his options. After the woman called and spoke with him, he surrendered, court records show.

The early morning Jan. 17, 2024 raid marked the end of what prosecutors have described as a “campaign of terror,” waged against a millionaire chemist who was apparently manufacturing and selling LSD on the side. Behind Dowen’s arrest was evidence of narcotics trafficking, attempts to set up a massive drug warehouse in Richmond that would churn out MDMA and psilocybin like a factory, and a multi-million dollar extortion plot that included a home invasion robbery, an arson fire, and bone-chilling threats.

Earlier this month, Dowen was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, despite numerous support letters describing him in glowing terms. To the daughter of Dowen’s longtime romantic partner, Dowen has been a father figure who is “kind, compassionate, and always willing to help those around him.

“Joel is the kind of person who naturally puts others before himself. No matter what is going on in his own life, he’s always willing to lend a hand, offer advice, or be there when someone needs him,” the young woman wrote. “He has been a constant source of emotional and financial support for my mother and sister, and one of the greatest gifts he’s given our family is the happiness and stability he has brought to my mom’s life.”

Descriptions of Dowen’s crimes paint a picture of a much darker side. A federal prosecution memorandum, filed in court, describes how Dowen reveled the violence and terror he inflicted on his victims, as he and co-conspirators were draining the chemist financially. It had all started with an unrelated LSD theft, and a decision everyone involved would come to regret, according to court records.

The chemist’s identity is unknown, other than by the initials “M.S.” in the indictment. In the early 2020s, he lost a huge haul of LSD to thieves, and was desperate to get it back. He reached out to Micah-Luc Almeida, a San Francisco sound engineer and botanist, who in turn put M.S. in touch with a man who could get the job done — Dowen. The gambit worked; Dowen somehow tracked down the stolen hallucinogens and returned them to their original owner, for which he was paid $1.5 million, according to court records.

But it didn’t end there. For reasons that aren’t spelled out in court records, Dowen decided he was owed more. He eventually became so enraged by the unpaid debt that he found out where M.S.’s LSD lab was located, and plotted revenge. It started with simple vandalism in February 2023 — Dowen drove to Mendocino, spray-painted “call” on a trailer allegedly owned by M.S.’s associates, and fired a gun as he drove off.

The following month, Dowen upped the ante significantly, according to court records. He directed associates to break into a home on Santa Fe Avenue in Del Mar Heights, an upscale, beach-adjacent community. M.S.’s 80-year-old father was zip-tied and beaten, suffering broken ribs, a broken nose, a concussion, and life-threatening skin trauma on his wrists, according to prosecutors. Years later, he said in a letter to the court that “life will never be the same” and that the ordeal forced him and his wife from the place they called home for nearly half a century.

Residents were shaken too. One of them told television station 10 News in 2023 that the community was recovering emotionally from news of the break-in.

“We are safe here. This is the best place on the planet,” resident Gustavo Ramos told the news station. “I will keep my eyes open and I will be watching the neighborhood more than ever.”

Dowen allegedly shared one of the news stories with M.S.

“Look this can either go away or escalate,” he wrote. “Ignoring me will cause it to escalate.”

What followed was an Oct. 30, 2023 arson fire at M.S.’s property. Prosecutors say after setting the blaze, Dowen texted Almeida, who had assisted him during the extortion plot.

“Happy birthday,” Dowen wrote. “Call me Johnny blaze.”

Almeida allegedly responded: “F—ing rad. Finished the job.”

By the end of it all, the victim had paid down $4 million, in addition to the $1.5 million finders fee for the stolen LSD. The duo allegedly used proceeds to start an MDMA and psilocybin warehouse in Richmond, intent on producing huge amounts of psychedelic mushrooms and a stronger form of MDMA. It sent nowhere; when prosecutors raided the lab in 2024, it was full of waste material from their failed efforts, according to court records. Almeida’s San Francisco home did contain thousands of tabs of both drugs, though, prosecutors say.

Almeida was sentenced to three years in federal prison. His mother described the “tremendous shock and fear” she felt when learning her son was facing a federal indictment. She knew what he faced; in the 1980s she and her romantic partner were charged in an alleged cocaine smuggling scheme in Texas.

“To understand Micah’s motives and choices, I would like you to know more about my son,” she wrote. “He is a kind and thoughtful person, driven mainly by three things: education, his roses, and his spiritual life.”

Dowen’s lawyers said in court filings that his childhood was full of trauma and violence, and argued for a 14-year prison term. But Dowen’s final alleged crime before his incarceration was a major sticking point: when he fired on DEA agents, he had no idea who they were. He was simply reacting to recent reports of a burglary on Quiet Circle and believed he was the evildoers’ next victim.

Video of the raid can be seen below: