Police in Dzhankoy district, Crimea, detained five local residents suspected of attempting to sell marijuana after a road chase.[1] The van drew the attention of a traffic-police crew on the highway, its driver ignored the order to stop and tried to flee, and during the chase the group threw seven bags of cannabis out of the van before leaving the vehicle in a forest belt and hiding.[1] Police later found all the discarded load.[1] All five were detained at the 41-year-old man’s place of residence.[1]

The group comprised a 41-year-old villager, his 37-year-old partner, two relatives aged 36 and 50, and a 19-year-old acquaintance, who police say agreed to gather field cannabis and prepare it for sale on the peninsula.[1] They drove to the field at night, cut the bushes, packed them into seven polymer bags, loaded them into the Gazel van and planned to take them to the 41-year-old man’s yard to dry and divide.[1] An expert examination confirmed the plant mass was cannabis weighing more than eight kilograms in dried equivalent.[2]

The investigative department of the Dzhankoy inter-municipal police division opened a criminal case on attempted large-scale drug sale under part 3 of article 30 and part 4 of article 228.1 of the Criminal Code.[1] Four suspects were placed in custody and one under house arrest.[1] An inquiry officer separately adopted an unspecified procedural decision under part 1 of article 231 on illegal cultivation of drug-containing plants, leaving open who planted the field cannabis.[3]