Police in Uralsk detained a 34-year-old local resident.[1] Officers found two large boxes in the courtyard of the man’s house, containing 12 plastic bags of plant material.[1] Testing identified the contents as dried marijuana weighing 198 kg 16 g.[2] A search of the flat of another Uralsk resident, aged 45, uncovered another 23 kg of dried marijuana.[3] Across the two cases, police said more than 220 kg of marijuana was taken out of illegal circulation.[1]

Officers from the organised-crime unit of the West Kazakhstan regional police department discovered the batches during operational-search work under Qarasora, an operational and preventive campaign.[3] Pre-trial investigations were opened into both cases.[2] Investigators were working to establish every circumstance of the cases and any channels through which the marijuana could have been supplied and distributed.[2] Police said their work to detect and suppress the illegal circulation of narcotics in the region was continuing.[2]