Police officers and criminal investigators from the Nova Gorica Police Directorate found one of the largest cannabis cultivation laboratories in the country in the Idrija region and seized 44 kg of cannabis. The discovery was part of a successful investigation into the criminal offence of illicit manufacture and trade in narcotic drugs, illicit substances in sport and illicit drug precursors (Article 186 of the Criminal Code).

International police cooperation provided information and confirmed suspicions of the offence and on 20 June 2024, a search of premises was carried out on the basis of a court order. During this search, one of the largest laboratories (four rooms) for the cultivation of cannabis in Slovenia was discovered.

During the search, rather than growing plants, the police found cannabis vacuum-packed in 0.5 kg bags and several packages of cannabis plant parts intended for resale, totalling around 44 kg of cannabis. Other items and equipment for the production of the illicit drug (pumps, heaters, ventilation systems, data storage media, electronic devices, vacuum sealers, etc.) were also found in four specially adapted rooms.

Four people were arrested, of whom two (a 54-year-old Slovenian national and a 48-year-old Croatian national) were released after police questioning. The other two suspects, a 39-year-old Serbian national and a 51-year-old Croatian national, were brought before the investigating judge of the District Court in Nova Gorica, who ordered them to be remanded in custody.

It has been calculated that the suspects would have made around €130,000 from the sale of the illicit drug if it had found its way onto the black market, in just one "harvest" (four such harvests could be counted on annually). According to police estimates, the suspects could have grown between 2,500 and 3,000 cannabis plants in the laboratory.