Police in East Kazakhstan and Zhambyl regions blocked a marijuana and hashish supply channel from the southern region to the eastern part of the country during Operation Koknar last week.[1] After lengthy work, police identified a previously not convicted Zhambyl resident who had organised marijuana supplies to other regions for further sale.[1] The man stored marijuana at a relative’s home in Tuymekent village in Zhambyl region, where he was detained.[1] A sanctioned personal search of the seller seized two cell phones and 28,500 tenge received for selling marijuana.[1]
A search of the house in Tuymekent with a dog handler and service dog found four bags of dried marijuana weighing more than 30 kilograms and a packet of hashish weighing 2.4 kilograms in an outbuilding, which the detainee had intended to send to East Kazakhstan Region.[1] Near the Tatti-Sary-Koby highway police detained a 49-year-old native of Merke district with one plastic bag of marijuana weighing more than 12 kilograms.[1] In Ust-Kamenogorsk police detained a local resident for drug sale, finding 20 polymer wraps with psychotropic substance in a hiding place.[2] Over the week anti-drug units identified and registered 33 drug-trafficking crimes across the country.[1] They included 17 sales, five cases of storage in an especially large amount, six cases of smuggling and one case of cultivation of narcotic plants, and officers closed one drug den.[1] Police seized more than 54 kilograms of drugs in total, including 52 kilograms of marijuana and 2.4 kilograms of hashish, with the remaining heroin and synthetic amounts left out of the cannabis total.[1]
Both outlets attribute the operation to the Interior Ministry press service and describe it as part of Operation Koknar.[2] Citizens sent 298 reports of drug trafficking in a month to the anti-drug department’s WhatsApp hotline, mostly about graffiti advertising drug-sale sites or Telegram channels, which were being checked.[1]
