Since the start of 2026, Kazakh police have uncovered more than 80 human trafficking offenses and shut down two organized criminal groups. One of them was exposed in Almaty, where the criminals kidnapped homeless people to register luxury cars in their names, according to infohub.kz.
Samat Kusetov, head of the organized crime department at the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs, said at a roundtable at the Central Communications Service that the criminal activity involved finding and recruiting homeless individuals as victims of exploitation. They built positive credit histories for these victims and then used them to register expensive cars in Almaty, Astana, and Shymkent, which were later sold.
"The activities of two organized criminal groups have also been stopped. For example, a pre-trial investigation has been launched in Almaty against a group engaged in human trafficking for the purpose of criminal exploitation," Kusetov said. He added that the main organizers have been detained and the investigation is ongoing.