UNODC and Partners hold Simulation Training for Kazakh Law-enforcement Agencies to Combat Laundering Drug Money

A simulation training course on combating the laundering of drug money was held at the Kazakhstan Law Enforcement Academy late November. As part of the training, representatives of the Prosecutor's Office, internal affairs bodies, the Economic Investigation Service and the National Security Committee were involved in simulated investigative activities in conditions and situations as close to real-life as possible. The participants practiced interaction within inter-agency investigative teams to identify drug-related financing channels and schemes.

"Simulation training is a new type of training which involves the participants in a pre-planned scenario. The scenario that is prepared for the participants involves schemes for laundering the proceeds of drug-related crime, and the participants in real time, communicating with each other, try to uncover all the money laundering schemes of the drug proceeds in the scenario. Generally, in practice, it is very difficult to identify these proceeds, so the participants will apply all possible operational and investigative measures, but the main focus is on financial investigation elements, where the participants must find financial traces that will show that these proceeds that are derived from criminal activities related to drug distribution are laundered," says Andrey Romanovskiy, an international expert on countering laundering illegal proceeds.

As representatives of international organizations say, the relevance of the training lies in the fact that the unfavorable epidemiological situation in the world has led to the activation of local clandestine laboratories for the production of synthetic drugs, including in Kazakhstan. In addition, the unimpeded access to anonymous money transfers and the coordination of criminals via social media complicate the detection of drug-related crimes.

National experts and law-enforcement officers in Kazakhstan state that drug dealers are shifting from traditional methods of drug distribution to a virtual form of payment - electronic wallets, as well as cryptocurrency, and there are fewer and fewer different kinds of cash couriers who used to carry money.

This project is carried out as part of UNODC programme in Central Asia and the framework of the UNODC Global Programme Against Money Laundering, the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan and with financial support from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the US. Department of State.

Story in Russian language

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for more information, contact Vasilina Brazhko (Ms.)

Communication and PR Specialist

UNODC in Central Asia 

+996775987817 WhatsApp 

vasilina.brazhko [at] un.org