Four sentenced over 8 kg hashish smuggled via Caspian Sea
Three foreign nationals and one Kazakh citizen were sentenced by a Mangistau court in February 2023 for smuggling drugs across the Caspian Sea. They had been caught in August 2022 with 10 kg of opium and 8 kg of hashish after crossing the border illegally by small fast boat.
🇰🇿 Caspian Sea waters off Mangistau Region · Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (KNB) completed a criminal
investigation into three foreign nationals and one Kazakh citizen over drug
smuggling.[1]In February 2023, the specialised criminal court of Mangistau
Region found the drug-group members guilty under part 4 of article 286 of the
Kazakh Criminal Code and sentenced them to long prison terms.[1]
The four had been detained in August 2022 while attempting to bring 10 kg of
opium and 8 kg of hashish into Kazakhstan across the Caspian Sea.[1]The
foreign nationals illegally crossed the state border in a small motorboat.[1]The KNB said the boat was small and fast, making radar detection difficult, and
that the delivery was made at night in poor visibility using satellite
communications and GPS for navigation.[1]
At trial the defendants’ guilt was fully proven by the case materials, the KNB
said, adding that work against the drug trade continues.[1]
Photos and video
KNB handout photo published with the report on the Caspian drug-smuggling case. Photo: Press service of the KNB of Kazakhstan.Photo details
A court in Aktobe sentenced a 43-year-old man from the town of Shu to six years in prison for storing and selling marijuana, after he tried to sell 100 kilograms to an undercover KNB officer for 13 million tenge. In court he said he had found the bags beside the Aktobe-Atyrau highway and drove them into the city to pay off debts.
Court No. 2 in Kostanay sentenced 29-year-old Aleksandr Nerush to seven years in a medium-security facility for transporting and storing marijuana with intent to sell. He hid three packets of marijuana inside a punching bag bought in Almaty and carried it to Kostanay.
A specialised court in Uralsk fined a convoy-unit police sergeant 173,000 tenge after a medical check found cannabinoids and he admitted using marijuana. The West Kazakhstan regional court said the ruling had not yet entered into force.
Bayzak District Court sentenced a Zhambyl police lieutenant colonel and UBOP operative to seven years, reduced to four years and eight months under amnesty, for keeping more than 2 kg of hashish at his workplace. Officers of the regional National Security Committee department detained him, and the court also stripped him of his rank.
Arrested 1Sentenced 1Cannabis 2 kgPrison 4 years and 8 months
