Officers of the rapid-response group of Belarus’s Operational Customs, acting jointly with the drug-control unit of the Leninsky district police department in Minsk, detained two Belarusian men who had been growing marijuana.[1] The 29-year-old detainee had set up a specially equipped room inside his residential flat for growing cannabis bushes.[1]

At the moment of detention, officers seized two of those cannabis bushes from the younger man.[1] Officers also seized his smoking devices and the equipment used to grow the marijuana.[1] That equipment consisted of a grow box, mineral fertilisers, a timer, fans and measuring instruments.[1] The second detainee, a 33-year-old man, was found with smoking devices and a jar of marijuana ready for consumption, which officers seized.[2]

Customs said the two detainees face up to five years’ imprisonment for drug trafficking and for illegally sowing and growing plants containing narcotic drugs.[1] The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under article 328 of the Criminal Code.[2]