12 October, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. A domestic drug laboratory has been dismantled in Polotsk, the head of the Department for Drug Control and Combating Human Trafficking of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Volkov, informed a BELTA correspondent. During operational search activities, employees of the Department for Drug Control and Combating Human Trafficking of the Polotsk City Department of Internal Affairs discovered a room equipped with air intake, lighting, ventilation, and irrigation systems for growing high-quality marijuana in the apartment of an unemployed man born in 1987. During the inspection, in addition to the equipment, police representatives seized 123 g of marijuana and 650 g of undried cannabis plants. The man has been detained. A criminal case has been initiated against him under Part 2 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code of Belarus ("Illegal production, processing, acquisition, storage, transportation, or shipment for the purpose of sale, or illegal sale of narcotic drugs"), which provides for up to 8 years of imprisonment with possible confiscation of property. An investigation is underway. In total, during January-September of the current year, during operational activities, law enforcement agencies of the region identified 389 drug-related crimes, including 76 serious and particularly serious ones, and 63 related to drug trafficking. 44 kg 914 g of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances were seized from illegal circulation, including 32 kg 102 g of poppy straw, 8 kg 967 g of marijuana, 231 g of heroin, 121 g of hashish, and 374 g of psychotropic substances. Of the seized substances, 24 cases involved large quantities. 10 channels for the supply and transit of drugs through the region have been suppressed. -0-

BELTA