The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan has announced the arrest of 14 individuals suspected of involvement in a transnational criminal organization operating in Tashkent. The arrests were the result of extensive operational-search activities conducted in coordination with multiple law enforcement agencies.
The operations, carried out by the Ministry's Operational Search Department and its regional divisions, in cooperation with the State Security Service, the Customs Committee, and foreign law enforcement bodies, spanned six directions across the Chilanzar, Yunusabad, Yangikhayot, Bektemir, and other districts of the capital.
During the raids, a 21-year-old student of a prestigious higher education institution, studying in his third year, was found to be working as a "kladmen" (drug courier) for an online drug shop. When his Onix car was stopped and searched at a checkpoint in the Yangikhayot district, 500 grams of the synthetic drug alpha-PVP were discovered hidden in the vehicle's interior. The substance was officially seized and documented.
In a second line of operation, a member of the criminal group operating in the Namangan region was apprehended. As the investigations continued, each of the criminal associates was exposed as a link in a single interconnected drug network.
Through international cooperation, one of the leaders of the transnational syndicate was found to be hiding in a foreign country and was subsequently detained by local law enforcement authorities.
The targeted operations to identify individuals linked to the syndicate's activities in Uzbekistan resulted in the arrest of 7 warehouse keepers and 6 drug couriers who worked for them, as well as one of the group's leaders. In total, 14 people were taken into custody on suspicion of involvement in the transnational criminal organization.
Law enforcement officials seized 2 kilograms and 500 grams of alpha-PVP, a synthetic drug, from the suspects. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, this quantity is equivalent to 71,433 single-use doses.
All detainees have been charged under Part 6 of Article 273 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan, and a preventive measure of detention has been imposed. This article stipulates that the illicit preparation, processing, acquisition, storage, transportation, or forwarding of narcotic drugs in large quantities, committed by an organized group on the territory of two or more states or using the Internet, is punishable by imprisonment for 15 to 20 years.
Source: www.gazeta.uz