Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous Central Asian country and former Soviet state bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China. Since achieving [Page 455]independence in 1991, the country has had difficulty achieving stability. Organized crime groups are known to have significant influence with various political entities in the government, and riots continue to be an occasional occurrence, breaking out most recently in April 2010 in the town of Talas and the capital city of Bishkek, as violent protesters demonstrated their anger over the sluggish economy and ineffective leadership. There remain persistent rumors that the 2004 “Tulip Revolution” was funded by drug cartels.

The southern borders of the country have long been a route for trafficking Afghan heroin to the West, and such traffic augments Kyrgyzstan's supply of heroin as well, as cartels pay off intermediates and corrupt officials with product in addition to or in lieu of cash. Opium poppy has been grown in the country since the early Soviet period, originally for medicinal opium. The skills were retained or passed down, and in independent Kyrgyzstan they are turned to private industry and the cultivation and processing of illicit opium. In some cases, crops may be surprisingly small-scale compared to what narcotics officials are used to seeing in other countries. Small family-tended opium crops no bigger than a typical home garden are not uncommon, but provide significantly greater household income than a vegetable garden would. The opium production is still fairly limited compared to that of Afghanistan.

Given the long history and continued practice of growing poppy, it is not surprising that opiate use is relatively high in Kyrgyzstan with nearly 1 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 64 using opiate drugs annually. Marijuana and ephedra are more common drug crops; in the Issyk-Kul and Chui regions, about two-thirds of all families are estimated to be involved in the cultivation and harvest of marijuana. Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug, used by approximately 6.4 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 64. What is not consumed domestically is trafficked, usually in the form of hashish, to neighboring countries.

So widespread is the corruption in Kyrgyzstan that over a third of Bishkek drug users report that they have regularly bought their drugs from a police officer. Such transactions often begin with an arrest for possession, at which point the arresting officer offers to become the user's new dealer. Often the drugs sold are acquired through raids and arrests. There are no reliable estimates on how many Kyrgyz law enforcement officers may be involved in the drug trade. It can be assumed from anecdotal reports and comparisons to what is known in other countries that very often it is a crime of opportunity—an officer may not be an organized criminal, but may take advantage of a situation once to profit at a criminal's expense. In the capital city, the average policeman's salary is about $100 a month; it is far less in more rural areas. In many cases, drug users actually prefer buying from a police officer, even if the price is higher, as it sometimes is—with that price hike comes protection from arrests.

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