Court No. 2 on 3 November 2026 sentenced 29-year-old Aleksandr Nerush for unlawful transport and storage of drugs with intent to sell.[1] Officers detained Nerush together with the punching bag containing the banned substances before he could complete the plan.[1] Nerush partly admitted guilt, saying he had meant to keep the drugs for personal use and had no intent to distribute them.[1]
The court found that in August 2026 Nerush contacted an unidentified person online and offered his services as a courier who leaves stashes.[1] After receiving instructions, he travelled to Almaty to buy drugs and deliver them to Kostanay in exchange for a promised 500,000 tenge.[1] On 9 August he bought the drug in three plastic packets from a person not identified by the investigation.[1] On his handler’s instructions he bought a punching bag at an Almaty market, hid the marijuana packets inside it, transported it to Kostanay and continued to store the drug there.[1]
The prosecutor asked for eight years’ imprisonment.[1] The court convicted him under part 3 of Article 297 of Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code, which carries seven to 12 years with confiscation of property.[1] It treated his young child as mitigation and found no aggravating circumstances.[1] It imposed seven years in a medium-security penal institution.[1] The verdict had not entered into force.[1]
