Sixty-nine minors have been detained in Kazakhstan on drug-related charges, infohub.kz reports. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 40 teenagers were detained for drug distribution, 27 for possession of especially large quantities, and two more for advertising and promoting banned substances. Among those detained were 52 boys and 17 girls.
The ministry urged parents and legal guardians to pay closer attention to changes in their children's behavior. Bakhytzhan Amirkhanov, head of the department at the Interior Ministry's Committee for Combating Drug Crime, listed the signs that may indicate a teenager has been drawn into the illegal drug trade.
"You should be especially alarmed by: the sudden appearance of money or expensive items, secrecy around their phone and messages, and suspicious screenshots of various locations," Amirkhanov said.
According to him, other reasons to pay attention may include finding wraps, small packets, duct tape, or electronic scales on a teenager. The Interior Ministry representative advised parents to take an interest in how their child spends free time, who they communicate with in messaging apps, and who they follow on social media.
Amirkhanov recalled that criminal liability for drug offenses begins at age 16, and called on parents to take part in their children's legal education.
Since the start of the new school year, police have held 16,000 preventive events in nearly all schools and other educational institutions across the country. More than 5,000 of them involved teachers, psychologists, and narcologists.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that a man in Karaganda was suspected of organizing drug supplies from Thailand. According to the Financial Monitoring Agency, he enlisted a teenage acquaintance to receive one of the parcels and had the shipment addressed in the teenager's name.