Crimea’s drug-control directorate and Bakhchisaraysky district police found a cannabis plantation on the household plot of a 50-year-old man from an unnamed village during Operation Mak-2025, an operational-preventive police operation.[1] Officers seized more than 90 bushes of plants that looked like hemp and about five kilograms of dried plant parts and seeds from the private property.[1] Forensic testing showed the green plants belonged to the cannabis genus and contained a narcotic substance banned from cultivation and circulation.[1]

The owner said he had planted the crop himself at the beginning of May that year and tended it by periodically weeding and watering.[1] He said he cultivated the plants for personal use.[1]

Police opened two criminal cases against the suspect under provisions covering illegal cultivation and large-scale drug possession.[1] The authorities placed him under a written undertaking not to leave and to behave properly.[1] First Sevastopolsky reported that he faced up to 10 years in prison.[2]