Crackdown on organized crime in Central Asia

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS - In Brief 28 Mar 2024 by Alex Teddy
On March 27 Raimbek Matraimov and his three brothers were extradited from Azerbaijan to Kyrgyzstan. He was second in charge of the Kyrgyz Customs Service for several years. The State Committee of National Security is detaining him before his trial. Conviction rates in Kyrgyzstan are very high.  Matraimov faces charges of kidnapping and money laundering. Almost USD 1 billion was illegally taken out of the country while he was deputy chief of customs. In 2021 a court convicted him of money laundering but his sentence was a fine of only a few thousand USD. This was extraordinary in a country where even the smallest theft carries a sentence of several years incarceration. The court said that the sentence was because Matraimov reimbursed the state USD 24 million of embezzled money. Matraimov's accomplice Kamchy Kolbaev was killed by Kyrgyz Police in 2023. Matraimov then left the country. Kolbaev collaborated with an Uzbek crime lord, Salim Abduvaliev. On March 22 Abdulaiev was jailed in Uzbekistan for 6 years for weapons smuggling. This is a very short sentence by Uzbek standards. He is suspected to have connections to the highest levels of the Uzbek State. In countries with ubiqituous security and no fair trials it should be very easy to convict notorious gangsters. It is likely that gangsters bribe the police, judges and government ministers to allow them to continue their criminal enterprises. Abdulaiev and Kolbaev were thought to be part of the Brothers' Circle, which is an organized crime ring in the former USSR and specializes in drug trafficking. Both men were named by the US as major league drug dealers in 2011.

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