Two held after fire and escape bid at a Kursk Oblast cannabis grow house
Police and FSB officers in Zheleznogorsk district, Kursk Oblast, broke up an indoor cannabis operation run by a 29-year-old man from Perm Krai and arrested him and an accomplice, seizing 157 plants and about 5 kg of marijuana prepared for sale. The organiser locked the doors and set the building alight as officers arrived, and both suspects were remanded in custody.
Officers of the Zheleznogorsk inter-district interior ministry division and the
Kursk Oblast branch of the FSB broke up a cannabis-growing operation run by a
29-year-old man from Perm Krai.[1]More than a year earlier he had bought a
disused building in Zheleznogorsk district to grow farm produce for sale to
supermarket chains, fitting it with air conditioning, water supply and lighting.[1]When that business did not bring the expected profit, he began growing
drug-containing plants in the same building to make marijuana for sale, and
brought in an acquaintance from his home region.[1]
When detectives moved in on the grow house, which was watched by perimeter
cameras, the organiser locked the entrance doors, set the building on fire and
tried to escape through a back exit with his partner.[1]During the searches
officers seized 157 cannabis plants and about 5 kg of marijuana prepared for
sale.[1]
Investigators opened criminal cases over attempted sale of drugs in especially
large amounts and over illegal cultivation of drug-containing plants, and both
suspects were remanded in custody during the investigation.[1]
Photos and video
Police operational footage published with the report on the grow house in Zheleznogorsk district. Photo: Kursk Oblast police press servicePhoto details
Living plants (157 plants); Herbal cannabis (5 kg)
Activity
Cultivation, Processing, Sale
Setting
Other building
Grown
Indoor
Charges
attempted sale of drugs in especially large amounts (part 3 of article 30, point g of part 4 of article 228.1); illegal cultivation of drug-containing plants (article 231)
Case stage
Charged
Region
Kursk Oblast
Sources
МВД МЕДИАmvdmedia.ruRUСвыше 5 кг марихуаны и 157 кустов конопли изъяли полицейские из наркоцеха в Курской области
Open questions the AI reported
The releases give no separate date for the raid; 18 December 2023 is the date the regional interior ministry published its account and is used as the incident date.
The marijuana weight is reported as approximately 5 kg, so the figure is recorded as 5 kg.
The plant count and marijuana weight are those of the regional interior ministry, and no street value was published.
RIA Kursk calls the seized plants marijuana bushes while the interior ministry release calls them cannabis plants; the count is recorded as plants without splitting dried product from growing plants.
The case had reached the charge stage; no trial date or sentence was reported.
The accounts name no village or settlement inside Zheleznogorsk district where the building stood, so coordinates are for Zheleznogorsk and the precision is district.
The article's picture is captioned only as police operational footage; its caption does not describe the particular scene shown.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in РИА Курск: An employee of a private security company spotted the two men, stopped them and handed them over to the police, the regional interior ministry said.
Police in Balashov, Saratov Oblast, found a greenhouse in the cellar of a 43-year-old local man's house and seized 36 cannabis plants and 325.6 grams of marijuana from it. Criminal cases were opened for storing the drug and cultivating drug-containing plants, and the man was released under a written undertaking.
Police found marijuana being grown in one of the private houses checked during a migrant-control raid in the Dunai and Ogonyok gardening settlements in Vsevolozhsky District, Leningrad Oblast, next to the Morozov powder works. An administrative protocol under article 6.8 of the Administrative Code was drawn up against the grower and an inquiry is under way.
Drug-control police searched a 36-year-old man's flat on Baskakova Street in Konakovo and seized about 600 grams of dried cannabis with cultivation equipment. The man was detained and remanded in custody under a preparation-for-sale narcotics case.
Tula drug-control officers and Belev police searched a 32-year-old man's flat, seized more than 100 cannabis plants and at least 459 grams of marijuana he said he grew for himself, opened a large-scale possession case, and ordered him not to leave town pending investigation.
