Examples of Crime in Kazakhstan

                In my previous blog post I provided both state statistics on levels of crime in Kazakhstan and drug seizure data from the UNODC, both by province. This week I will provide several examples of serious crime across the country over the past several years to give you a better understanding of what composes these statistics. A general search on LexisNexis provides dozens of hits over the past several months. Recent Kazakh crime reports that make the news wire tend to fall into several categories: drug trafficking, extremist activities, organized crime and official corruption. Reports of other types of criminal activity certainly pop up, but these are the most common.

                Two events over just the past month provide a good example of extremists arrested in Kazakhstan. It is important to remember that Kazakhstan, and much of Central Asia, takes a very strict line against perceived threats to the state, and the label of terrorist or extremist can be broadly construed. The accused may have committed a crime that would fall under freedom of speech protections in much of the West. Only two weeks ago, an Uzbek man, Bekzod Ganiyev, was given an 8-year jail sentence in Uzbekistan for “secretly propagating ideologies of the banned Salafi sect” as reported by the Uzbek based newspaper, Qishloq Hayoti. He had previously been arrested in December of 2012 in Kazakhstan for a similar charge after fleeing from Uzbekistan. Interfax-Kazakhstan reported in early November on the 11-year sentence given to a Kazakh man, Sayan Khayrov in connection with the mass killing of 12 people in August of last year at the Ile-Alatau national park outside of Almaty city. Kazakh law-enforcement claimed the culprit was religious extremists, and soon after carried out a “special operation” that killed nine of the suspects, and two children. Sayan Khayrov was then placed on a wanted list with several other surviving suspects until he was captured. 

                Several arrests have been reported over the past year for drug trafficking. Two large seizures of marijuana over the past two months, one in Almaty province and the other in Zhambyl province with 200 kg and 300 kg of marijuana respectively. A more serious arrest took place back in March, when police broke up a criminal organization that supplied heroin throughout Almaty province. It appears that a 44-year-old woman was the leader of the group. Joint efforts between Kazakh and Russian authorities were illustrated in December of last year with an international operation named Transit. As reported by the Kazakh news agency Kazinform, this operation targeted the northern distribution route which brings Afghan heroin through Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to the Russian market. Several stages of the operation seized over 164 kg of heroin, which were trafficked intrucks carrying vegetables across the Kazakh – Russian border. One trafficker, carrying a load of onions, was able to hide 200 g heroin inside of each onion. Four suspected traffickers were arrested, three in Russia and one in Kazakhstan.

A few examples illustrate other areas of profit for criminal organizations outside of drug trafficking. In the province of East Kazakhstan, Interfax reported in September of this year on the arrest of individuals involved in the organized theft of diesel oil from the Semey locomotive depot. A local resident had organized relatives and workers at the depot to cover the theft by artificially increasing fuel consumption reports. The theft was facilitated by the cooperation of traffic controllers working for the Kazakh Temir Zholy company, who would schedule dead-end stops for locomotives where drivers would then transfer oil to waiting tanker trucks.

                Corruption has been an endemic issue for Kazakhstan since independence. Three news reports from Interfax illustrate the seriousness of the issue. Kazakh police started a broad investigation of official corruption at the beginning of 2013 and discovered 264 instances over a ten month period. Corrupt officials diverted money through state construction projects such as water infrastructure, road building, housing projects, and agricultural expansion. The investigation report claimed that these officials cost the state over 6 billion tenge or 39 million dollars. A specific example involved a highly organized corruption ring that was uncovered by internal security at the Khorgos border control point in Almaty province, the largest customs checkpoint on the Kazakh-Chinese border. This checkpoint is fairly notorious, with a history of corruption scandals involving high level officials. A deputy regional head within the National Security Committee had been arrested in May 2011. This ring utilized border guards to smuggle Chinese cell phones across the border into Kazakhstan. The guards were caught in August with over $460,000 worth of phones. Finally, former police employees in the province of Akmola were accused and found guilty of forgery, abuse of power, abduction, and covering up a crime, and were ultimately sentenced to a penal colony. The head of the district Internal Affairs Department, several deputies, and senior investigators were involved. These officials had attempted to hide the murder of a man killed in Astana last year. The body of the man had been picked up by the police and buried in another location. Additionally, two witnesses to the murder were transported to another region and imprisoned for several months.

References

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Nov 20). Kazakh man jailed for 11 years on terror charges. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Nov 13). Uzbek man gets eight years in jail for banned religious propaganda. Qishloq Hayoti, p. 4. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Nov 13). Kazakh police uncover "several hundred" corruption cases in state projects. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Nov 13). Group of Kazakh police convicted of crime cover-up and abduction. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Nov 4). Kazakh national arrested with over 300 kg of marijuana. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Sep 18).Criminal group engaged in diesel theft busted in Kazakh east. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Sept 18). Kazakh police catch Uzbek national with 200 kg of marijuana. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Sep 13). Border guards accused of smuggling Chinese cell phones into Kazakhstan. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Mar 13). Kazakh police bust woman-led drug ring. Interfax-Kazakhstan. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database

BBC Monitoring Central Asia Unit (2013, Jan 16). Kazakh police incinerate nearly 165 of heroin seized in joint operation. Kazinform. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database