A 34-year-old director of a local commercial company was arrested on 10 February 2022 in a rented flat in a multi-storey building on Roschinskaya Street in Yekaterinburg.[1] When the officers arrived, the man threw boxes and cannabis out of the window and tried to flush the rest down the toilet, but the dried plant clogged the plumbing.[2]

Officers of the regional drug-trafficking department seized 16 kg of cannabis in all.[2] The man told detectives he had grown the crop himself in the flat, which belonged to a woman he knew, and had kept the cannabis there until his arrest.[3] He grew the plants in barrels in a greenhouse set up inside the flat.[1] Officers backed by Rosgvardiya riot police detained him, and he was placed under arrest.[4]

On 22 November 2022 the Chkalovsky district court of Yekaterinburg found the businessman guilty of storing drugs on a large scale and sentenced him to six years in prison.[3] The case was opened under article 228 of the Criminal Code, which covers unlawful acquisition and storage of drugs, and the press service put the maximum penalty at 20 years.[2]