Work trip turned into 18 years in prison for foreigners in Kazakhstan

Tengrinews.kz – Three foreign nationals have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in Pavlodar.

The Specialized Interdistrict Criminal Court of Pavlodar Region delivered a verdict against four members of a transnational criminal group, including two 46-year-old citizens of Moldova. They had organized a drug lab and, within a month, produced over 120 kilograms of mephedrone worth billions of tenge.

The court also found a 31-year-old Russian citizen and a Kazakh of the same age guilty of involvement in the criminal group.

According to court proceedings, the childhood friends had come to Pavlodar from Stepnogorsk in January of the previous year. Both were graduates of prestigious foreign universities—one a software engineer, the other a teacher.

“I saw an ad for a courier job offering $3,000 a month. I suggested it to my friend—he was also unemployed. We arrived in Pavlodar, bought various goods, delivered boxes and canisters—we didn’t question what was inside,” one of the defendants told the court.

The Moldovan citizens claimed they were lured to Kazakhstan under the pretense of working at a tobacco factory.

“They told us we’d be working at a tobacco plant. But when we got there, we ended up in a private house with a workshop in the yard. As soon as we stepped inside, we received a message on Telegram saying we had to make ‘meth’. We were held like slaves—there was always a car parked outside, we were watched, threatened, told if we tried to escape, we’d be found and buried in the steppe,” said one of the foreign defendants.

The court viewed these claims as an attempt to mitigate their punishment.

All four were found guilty under the following articles of the Criminal Code:

• Article 264, Part 2: Participation in a transnational organized group or transnational criminal organization;
• Article 297, Part 4: Illegal production, storage, and transportation of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances in especially large quantities by an organized group.

The Kazakh and Russian nationals were each sentenced to 15 years in a correctional facility, while the two Moldovan citizens received 18 years with confiscation of property.

The defense lawyers had requested reduced sentences, arguing the defendants were not acquainted and acted independently.

“The court found no grounds for leniency, as the defendants committed serious and especially grave crimes that pose a significant threat to public safety. The foreign nationals knowingly entered Kazakhstan to engage in criminal activity,” stated Judge Nurlan Aitbayev.

All convicts will serve their terms in a medium-security prison.