Officers of the drug control department of the Russian Interior Ministry for Penza Oblast stopped the activity of a 50-year-old man from Mokshan district with no previous convictions.[1] The man was detained and held in custody; local outlets reported that he was under arrest when their accounts were published.[2]

A search of his home found 196 bundles wrapped in black tape and 200 foil-wrapped packets holding plant material.[1] Police said he used a gardening cooperative to produce the drug, and found stashes in the rooms of abandoned dachas, the Russian term for country cottages, some dug into the ground.[1] From the caches officers removed three 50-litre plastic containers and two large cardboard boxes filled with dry green mass.[1] Testing identified the seized material as 61 kg of marijuana plus more than 16 kg of parts of a drug-containing plant of the cannabis genus.[1]

The man told police he grew the cannabis himself, made the drug and delivered it by car to stashes in Penza and Moscow Oblasts.[1] He said an online market found his buyers and paid him a salary, which police said was his only income at the time of his detention.[1]

The investigation unit of the Mokshan district police department opened a criminal case under part 4 of article 228.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, which covers the sale of drugs in especially large amounts.[1]