On 10 April police stopped a car on the Western Europe–Western China highway near Shizhaga in Aral district during an operation.[1] The driver was a 36-year-old resident of Zhambyl region.[2] The suspect was detained and placed in the detention facility of the Aral district police department.[1] A pre-trial investigation was opened under article 297 of Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code, covering unlawful manufacture, processing, acquisition, storage, transport for sale, forwarding or sale of narcotics.[2]

In the boot of the car officers found plant material with a distinctive smell packed separately in plastic bottles: eight 2-litre bottles, twenty-six 1-litre bottles and one 1.5-litre bottle.[2] Officers also seized a 1-litre plastic bottle containing a grey powder.[2] Expert testing identified the seized substances as 21 kg 458 grams of dried marijuana and 1 kg 345 grams of hashish.[1]

The stop was carried out by the Kyzylorda region police department’s drug-control department jointly with Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry.[3] Police described the detention as the interception of a man transporting narcotics on an especially large scale.[1]