Kazakhstan's Financial Monitoring Agency has shut down alleged criminal groups that organized a cross-border dropper network serving online casinos, reports infohub.kz.
"It was established that processing traders set up so-called 'drop farms' using bank accounts of citizens of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Foreign nationals arriving in Kazakhstan were issued individual identification numbers, SIM cards, and bank accounts, after which mobile devices with authorized banking apps were handed over to drop managers," the agency said in its official Telegram channel.
According to the agency, a P2P platform was used to manage financial flows, handling player payments, automatically identifying them, and paying out winnings. Settlements between scheme participants were also conducted in cryptocurrency.
In Turkistan Region and Almaty, three Uzbek citizens were detained for using 89 Kazakh bank cards. Twenty drop phones were seized from them. The volume of transactions on the controlled cards amounted to 500 million tenge.
Another alleged cross-border group was dismantled in Zhambyl Region. Its members set up dropper infrastructure in Taraz and Almaty, involving citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, including minors.
During searches, 180 bank cards, 15 drop phones, 26 SIM cards, $50,000, 27,000 USDT, four vehicles, weapons, and ammunition were seized. The incoming turnover on the cards exceeded 9.8 billion tenge.
A court has authorized pretrial detention for five suspects. The investigation is ongoing.