Team Herald
PANJIM: Crime Branch of Goa Police on Thursday arrested a Russian couple from their rented apartment in Siolim for growing and possessing cannabis plants and ganja.
According to police sources, the team led by Police Inspectors Chetan Patil and Satish Gawade raided a rented premises in Siolim and seized cannabis plants, cannabis seeds and ganja, all worth around Rs 1 lakh.
Police arrested a Russian couple, Grigorii Fomenko, aged 32 years, and his wife Viktoriia Fomenko aged 29 years, who had rented the apartment and were growing the cannabis plants in flower pots.
Police seized two cannabis plants, three pouches of cannabis seeds, 118 grammes ganja, stems of cannabis weighing 380 grammes and 5 pots for plantation.
The couple had arrived in India on November 4, 2018 on tourist visa which is valid upto April 18 this year.
This is the fourth such raid in six months wherein arrests have been made for not just possessing narcotics but also growing them in their premises. In February this year, a team of Pernem police raided the rented apartment of Russian tourist Ilia Alexsandrovich Shtennikov and seized cannabis plants worth Rs 65000.
Earlier, in December last, another Russian couple, Viacheslar Terekhin and Anna Asharova, had been held for allegedly growing cannabis in their rented apartment in Anjuna.
Cannabis plants, drugs and other items worth Rs 15 lakh were seized from the couple’s residential apartment.
In October last, police had arrested another foreigner Christopher Michael Pattison for growing cannabis in Alto Porvorim. The seized material was worth around Rs 4 lakh.
