Five detained, 87 kg of cannabis seized in Caspian Sea bust
Kazakhstan's security service detained three foreigners and two Kazakh citizens on 1 November 2026 in a Caspian Sea operation against an international drug channel. Officers seized 27 kg of hashish and 60 kg of marijuana, plus 22 kg of opium and a fast boat, and opened a pre-trial investigation.
🇰🇿 Caspian Sea waters, Mangistau Region · Kazakhstan
·
Arrested
5
Cannabis
87 kg
Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee said an international drug channel
operating in the Caspian Sea waters had been eliminated.[1][2][3][4] On 1 November, the
Border Service together with the committee’s Mangistau Region department
detained three foreigners who tried to flee pursuit on a watercraft.[1][2][3][4][5] Two
Kazakh citizens were detained in the coastal area in the same operation.[6][2][3][4][5]
The committee presented the detentions on the water and on the coast as parts of
the same operation.[6]
Officers seized 27 kg of hashish and 60 kg of marijuana in the operation.[1][2][3][4][7]
The two cannabis seizures together amount to 87 kg of cannabis covered by this
report.[1] Officers also seized 22 kg of opium and a small fast boat alongside
the cannabis.[6][2][3][7]
A pre-trial investigation was opened into the case.[1][2][3][4][5] The committee said
further information cannot be disclosed under part 1 of article 201 of the
Criminal Procedure Code.[1] The committee published the announcement on 3
November 2026.[1] The announcement was issued by the committee’s press
service.[1]
Photos and video
Officers with detained persons at night beside seized bags and packages from the Caspian operation. Photo: Press service of the National Security Committee Source: Committee for National Security of Kazakhstan
Sources
О пресечении наркоканала. Комитет национальной безопасности Республики Казахстан, 3 November 2026. In Russian.
The 87 kg cannabis total is the sum of the separately stated 27 kg of hashish and 60 kg of marijuana; the 22 kg of opium from the same operation is excluded from cannabis figures.
The names, ages, detailed nationalities and procedural status of the five detained people were not published.
No court outcome was reported; the pre-trial investigation was still under way when announced.
Both accessible reports relay the same KNB statement and are not independent of each other.
The exact location on the Caspian Sea and coastal area was not specified beyond Mangistau Region, so regional coordinates are used.
Officers from five Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) states, joined by Chinese and Iranian representatives, seized more than 11.4 tonnes of drugs, including more than 1,260 kg of marijuana and over 232 kg of hashish, in the five-day "Canal – Caspian Lighthouse" operation. They detained 376 suspected traffickers and broke up 101 drug groups.
Kazakh police detained six people and seized about 120 kg of marijuana and cannabis raw material from three hidden caches in the Zhambyl region on 16 September 2026, part of Operation Karasora 2026 targeting transit channels from the country's southern regions.
In the first ten days of the 2026 Karasora operation, police recorded 187 drug offences, including 46 sales, 40 cases of cultivating drug plants and four of smuggling. They seized 760 kg of drugs, among them more than 121 kg of synthetic drugs, and 266 kg of precursors. A separate case in Astana involved 245 g of alpha-PVP packed in 227 sachets.
By mid-August 2025, during the Karasora operation, police in Zhambyl region mowed wild cannabis on 4,394.6 hectares of steppe and burned the cut plants. The regional police put the total weight at more than 3,000 tonnes. The work used agricultural machinery and was part of the annual campaign against harvesting in the Chu valley and nearby areas.
