A district police officer in Krasnoyarsk Krai found almost 12 kg of marijuana at the home of a 48-year-old man in the village of Brazhnoye, Kansky district, during a routine check of people under police supervision.[1] The man, previously convicted of drug trafficking, had gone to the town to report to the criminal-inspection authority, and his 67-year-old friend let the officer in.[1]

Inside, the officer noticed a plastic container of ground plant material and a smoking pipe on a bedside table and waited for the owner to return.[1] The owner admitted the container held a banned substance, and officers called to the scene seized it and searched the other rooms with him.[1] In the storeroom police found three more sacks and a metal bathtub filled with dry plant stems with a characteristic smell.[1] An examination established that the seized material was marijuana weighing almost 12 kg in total.[1]

The man said he had gathered the weed in vacant lots outside the village for his own use and tried to collect enough to last through the New Year holidays.[1] Investigators at the Kansky interior ministry division opened a criminal case under part 2 of article 228 of the Russian Criminal Code, which carries a maximum of ten years in prison.[1] The suspect was placed in custody as a measure of restraint.[1] The regional police press service said the man could face up to ten years in a penal colony because he had previously been caught for a similar offence.[2]