Underground drug laboratory neutralized in Orsha district

August 27, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. Police have suppressed the activities of an underground drug manufacturing laboratory in the Orsha district, the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Internal Affairs Department's Information and Public Relations Department told a BELTA correspondent. During the implementation of the special program "Mak" (Poppy), law enforcement officers detained an unemployed resident of the district center, born in 1965. He adapted one of the rooms in his dacha house, located at the Rumino station in the Orsha district, for growing cannabis. Artificial lighting was installed there, and a regulated temperature and humidity regime was organized. As established, the laboratory had been in operation since the beginning of 2009. During the search, cannabis bushes weighing more than 1 kg were seized, which contain the psychotropic substance tetrahydrocannabinol and can be used to produce marijuana, hashish, and hashish oil. In addition, police seized over 160 g of marijuana. A criminal case has been initiated based on this fact under Part 1 of Article 329 of the Criminal Code of Belarus ("Sowing or cultivation of prohibited plants containing narcotic substances"), which provides for punishment up to imprisonment for up to 3 years. -0-