Two held in Penza as police seize 7 kg of hashish from a car and a cache
Police in Penza stopped a car and detained two men, finding 27 packets that testing identified as 5 kg of mephedrone and 3 kg of hashish, and then seized about 4 kg more hashish from a cache in Issinsky district. The two, from Moscow Oblast and abroad, were jailed pending a criminal case under part 5 of article 228.
Officers of the Penza Oblast branch of the Russian Interior Ministry, backed by
regional Rosgvardia troops, stopped a car in the regional capital and detained
the two men inside on suspicion of drug trafficking.[1]The two detainees were
a man born in 1991 from Moscow Oblast and a foreign national born in 1999.[1]
A search of the car turned up 27 packets of an unknown substance, which testing
identified as 5 kg of mephedrone and 3 kg of hashish.[1]In Issinsky district
of Penza Oblast police then found a cache the suspects’ accomplices had set up
and seized about 4 kg of hashish from it, confirmed by examination.[1]
According to police, the accomplices collected the large consignment from a
stash in the Moscow region on the instructions of an unidentified coordinator
and planned to sell the drugs through caches across Penza Oblast without direct
contact with buyers.[1]A criminal case was opened under part 3 of article 30
and part 5 of article 228 of the Criminal Code, covering an attempted
large-scale drug offence.[1]Both suspects were placed in pre-trial detention.[1]
Photos and video
Photo published with the statement, credited to police operational footage, of the drug haul seized from the detained suspects. Photo: Russian Interior Ministry for Penza OblastPhoto details
Police operational video published with the statement on the Penza detention and the hashish cache found in Issinsky district. Video: Russian Interior Ministry for Penza Oblast Source: МВД МЕДИА
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
2
Cannabis
7 kg
Sites
1
Agency
УМВД России по Пензенской области
Agency type
Police, Gendarmerie
Cannabis
Hashish (7 kg)
Activity
Possession, Sale
Setting
Vehicle, Street or public place
Charge
attempted illegal sale or possession of drugs on an especially large scale (part 3 of article 30, part 5 of article 228)
Case stage
Under investigation
Region
Penza Oblast
Date
Publication date
Sources
МВД МЕДИАmvdmedia.ruRUПорядка 12 кг наркотиков изъяли пензенские правоохранители у закладчиков, приехавших в регион
Open questions the AI reported
The statement gives no separate date for the car stop or the cache search; 6 February 2024 is the publication date of the press release and stands in for the incident date.
The cache haul is described as about 4 kg of hashish, so the cannabis total of 7 kg is approximate.
The 12 kg in the headline is a combined total of mephedrone and hashish; it is not recorded as a cannabis figure.
No names were released, only birth years 1991 and 1999, and no court outcome, plea or sentence was reported.
The source does not say whether the car stop and the Issinsky district cache discovery happened on the same day.
The page photo is credited only as police operational footage with no caption of its own; it is listed as showing the seized drugs.
Police in Kaliningrad detained a 32-year-old man accused of growing cannabis at a plot in Kutaisky Lane and preparing it for sale. Officers seized 153.6 grams of the drug and eight cannabis bushes, and a criminal case for attempted large-scale drug sale was opened.
Police in Belokalitvinsky District, Rostov Oblast, detained a 72-year-old man suspected of using and storing cannabis and seized more than four kilograms from his home. He told them he grew the plants from wild cannabis seeds to smoke for his bronchial asthma, and a criminal case was opened under part 2 of article 228.
Police in Naberezhnye Chelny detained a 45-year-old man and found two indoor grow boxes, with examinations identifying 451.04 g of cannabis and 69.86 g of marijuana. A criminal case was opened under part 2 of article 228, carrying up to 10 years' imprisonment, while refusal of a medical test brought five days of administrative arrest.
Sevastopol drug police detained a 43-year-old man who they said stored and packed drugs and laid master stashes for an online shop, and seized a 1.3 kg pressed cannabis briquette from his rented garage. Officers also found single doses of marijuana and amphetamine at his rented house and about a kilogram of mephedrone in a woodland stash near Inkerman; a court ordered him held in custody.
