On October 11, 2021, Berikkhan Nurgaliyev, a deputy minister of internal affairs told journalists that law enforcement seized about 3,000 doses of synthetic drugs in just one week of an anti-drug operation.
According to the official, 851 cases were connected to the wild hemp; in 233 cases people tried to cultivate drug-containing crops in their homesteads. So far, the police seized more than 10 tons of drugs, including 8 tons of marihuana, 65 kilograms of hashish, 60 kilos of synthetic drugs and 764 grams of heroin. Law enforcement officials have also destroyed about eight tons of wild hemp.
«The government has prepared a new rule that determines a criminal punishment for illicit trafficking of 11 new types of synthetic drugs and 17 precursors; this rule will enter into effect very soon. Moreover, for more common types of drugs, the government has decreased its threshold when a criminal liability comes into force. Now, if someone possesses methamphetamine or spice or other drugs in an amount of just one gram he or she has to pay a price for that,» Nurgaliyev said.
As he noted, this year the police have destroyed 13 narco laboratories in the country: two in Nur-Sultan, four in the Karaganda region, three in Almaty and the North Kazakhstan region each, and one in the Aktobe region.
«In the Karaganda region, we have completed a large-scale operation aimed at the liquidation of a criminal group, which had operated in several regions of the country. As a result, the police seized six kilos of drugs and disclosed an international circle of drug traffickers and dealers,» he said.
