In October 2021 Kazakhstan’s Border Service and the National Security Committee’s Mangistau department detained a small Amur-type boat with two foreigners aboard in the Caspian Sea for deliberately crossing Kazakhstan’s state border illegally.[1] In December 2021 one of the detained men was found guilty of deliberately crossing the state border illegally and sentenced to six months in prison with expulsion from Kazakhstan for five years.[1] On 10 March 2022 a specialized interdistrict court found the second foreigner guilty of smuggling restricted items, illegal drug trafficking for sale and illegal border crossing.[1] The court sentenced the second foreigner to 17 years in a maximum-security penal institution.[1] A Mangistau outlet reported that two foreign citizens had received terms for drug smuggling.[2]

Inspecting the boat, officers found and seized 14 kg of opium, 8 kg of hashish and 29 plates of the psychotropic substance methadone.[1] The Mangistau outlet repeated the same seizure as 14 kilograms of opium, eight kilograms of hashish and 29 plates of Methadone.[2]

The second man’s drug conviction covered illegal manufacture, acquisition, storage, transport for sale and sale of drugs and analogues.[1] The official account was issued by the press service of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee.[1]