More than 20,000 tonnes of wild hemp have been destroyed in various parts of Russia in the Poppy-2004 preventive operation, the Russian Federal Drugs Trade Control Service said today.
The operation uncovered 1,066 areas illegally sown to poppies, hemp or other narcotic plants. The drugs police confiscated more than 16,000 t of drugs or the raw materials used to make them, including 11.8 t of marijuana, 2.2 t of poppy straw, more than 100 kg of hashish and 27 kg of opium. More than 6,000 criminal cases have been brought against people engaged in illegal drugs cultivation and harvesting for subsequent sale.
"The facts are evidence that in many regions of Russia wild help remains the most easily accessible source for manufacturing drugs," the service said. "Around 3,000 locations in which it grows have been found, with a total weight of plants destroyed of 20,000 t." In Moscow alone, the capital's drugs police destroyed a wild-hemp plantation covering an area of more than 600 sq.m. within the city limits.

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
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