Civil and military police found a cannabis plantation of about 30,000 plants in the rural area of Virgem da Lapa, and three men, aged 31 and 42, were arrested at the scene.[1] The plantation was found on Tuesday 26 May during inquiries linked to a kidnapping in Coronel Murta.[1] The teams came across an improvised dwelling on a farm while carrying out those inquiries, and one of the men tried to run when he saw the police, which raised suspicion about the site.[1]

The plants grew in a wooded area where the men had set up tents, and there was also an improvised structure used to dry and prepare the drug.[1] Police seized precision scales, packaging for the drug, a water pump and a notebook with irrigation notes.[1] The civil police said the drug and the cultivation materials were destroyed over four days.[1] The destruction operation was supported by the municipal environment secretariat of Coronel Murta and the Araçuaí fire brigade.[1] The Araçuaí civil police station is leading the investigation, which continues to identify other people involved and to examine the criminal structure behind the plantation.[1]

Military police said the cultivation covered between five and six hectares on a farm in the Capão area, in the rural zone of Virgem da Lapa.[2] Military police put the three arrested men’s ages at between 34 and 50 and said other people involved escaped into the woods.[2] The drug was to be burned at the site the next day, and the three men were taken to Araçuaí.[2] The three suspects were held in the Araçuaí prison.[3]

The Araçuaí civil police station burned and destroyed the plantation between 26 and 28 May with support from the fire brigade and the environmental secretariat, and also destroyed the tents and other structures used to house the people tending the crop.[3] The plantation was reported by the civil police’s own statement and by military police on the day of the find, and the previous day’s kidnapping inquiry is the case from which the discovery followed.[4]