Three verdicts in the cases of online drug shops San-Andreas, Mus, Zadira and Kingdom of Hades have entered into legal force in Astana. Members of the criminal groups received sentences ranging from 16 to 17 years in prison. During the investigation, law enforcement officers also discovered 88 crypto wallets containing assets worth more than 2 billion tenge. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
According to the prosecutor's office, the criminal groups sold drugs through online stores. Each participant had a specific role: organizers managed the shops' operations, ensured supplies of prohibited substances and financing, curators controlled couriers, and so-called warehouse workers received, stored and packaged drugs.
Stashers were responsible for distributing prohibited substances through hiding places. For financial settlements, the criminals used other people's bank cards and digital assets.
In court, state prosecutors presented correspondence with instructions, information about bank transfers, photographs of stashes with geographic coordinates, as well as seized drugs and equipment for packaging them.
Based on this evidence, it was possible to establish connections between members of the criminal groups and determine each person's role in the illegal drug trade.
Following the trials, the defendants were sentenced to 16 and 17 years in prison. The convicted individuals' money, digital assets, property and cars were confiscated.
Astana's special prosecutors paid particular attention to investigating the activities of the drug shops Zadira and Kingdom of Hades.
The investigation established that members of the criminal groups used cryptocurrency for financial settlements. In total, 88 crypto wallets were identified, containing digital assets worth more than 2 billion tenge.
In addition, special prosecutors managed to identify the organizers of these drug shops who are abroad. Their extradition from Montenegro to Kazakhstan is now expected.
Because of this, the investigation into the suspected organizers located abroad has not yet been completed, despite the three verdicts in the drug shop cases entering into force.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that five suspects were detained in Astana for organizing the online drug shop Pepe. The criminal scheme also included an organizer, a packager, a warehouse worker and a stasher. During searches, police seized about 12 kg of drugs, including apple-shaped cookies filled with cannabis resin.