Counteraction to organized crime in the field of drug trafficking

The Law Enforcement Academy under the Prosecutor General’s office of the Republic of Kazakhstan has launched an international simulation training on responding to cases of legalization (laundering) of proceeds from drug crimes.

The event was organized jointly with the CARICC, the Ministry of internal Affairs, the Financial monitoring Committee of the Ministry of Finance, with the support of the US Embassy in Kazakhstan and the OSCE office in Nur-Sultan.

The training is attended by over 40 people – representatives of the Prosecutor’s office, interior Ministry, FMC and CARICC, experts from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

In the process of its preparation, experts from law enforcement and government agencies, special educational institutions, international organizations and the banking sector of Kazakhstan developed scenarios and profiles of actors for the exercise.

During the training, real cases of distribution of drugs, laundering of proceeds from drug crime will be simulated.

The task of the participants is to carry out all the necessary operational and investigative actions, to establish the circle of persons involved in the crime, the scheme of legalization of income from drug trafficking, followed by the direction of the criminal case to the court and the maintenance of the state charge.

On the last day of the exercise, a trial will be modeled with the participation of the current judge of the Specialized inter-district criminal court of the Nur-Sultan city.

According to the organizers of the event, the problems raised during the training are relevant all over the world.

According to UNODC studies, the amount of money and other property confiscated annually by drug traffickers as a result of drug trafficking is only 0.5 per cent of the total amount of drug proceeds recovered.

About 7 thousand criminal offenses in the sphere of illicit drugs trafficking, psychotropic or toxic substances, precursors and their analogues are registered annually in Kazakhstan.

Of these, over the past three years, only 16 criminal offenses have been registered in the field of legalization of income derived from drug crime. And only 10 criminal cases are sent to the court.

The event will last until July 26 this year.