Police completed a two-week special operation against a cannabis-group supply channel running from Zhambyl region to Almaty.[1] For two weeks officers kept an Almaty resident suspected of storing and selling hashish under operational surveillance.[1] Search measures identified the supplier as a native of Shu who transported the drugs from Zhambyl region.[1] The supplier was detained in Bayserke village in Ili district of Almaty region.[1] On the evening of the same day police detained the Almaty resident who was directly selling the drugs.[1] Both detainees were placed in a pre-trial detention facility and a pre-trial investigation was opened under part 3 of Article 297.[1] The charge covers illegal manufacture, processing, acquisition, storage, transport for sale, forwarding and sale of narcotic drugs, and carries ten to fifteen years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.[2]

A personal search of the supplier’s travel bag found two plastic wraps carrying five kilograms of hashish.[1] A personal search of the Almaty suspect seized a paper wrap containing hashish.[1] A service search dog found another seven kilograms of hashish in a refrigerator in his house.[1] The total weight of the seized drugs was 12 kg, which is an especially large size.[1]

Police said about 20 tonnes of drugs are seized nationally each year, mostly marijuana and hashish of the cannabis group.[2]