Kyzylorda
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| Kyzylorda | |
|---|---|
| Qyzylorda, Kzyl-Orda | |
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Geography | |
| Country | Kazakhstan |
| Province/State | Kyzylorda Region |
| Coordinates | 45.19, 63.63 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 227,000 km² |
| Terrain | Steppe, sand desert and riverside tugai woodland of the lower Syr Darya, with irrigated farmland and villages; approximately Kyzylorda Region |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2015–2023 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Kyzylorda is a cannabis growing area in Kazakhstan, in Kyzylorda Region on the lower Syr Darya. Cannabis is sown there on hidden plots in the steppe and the desert and in house yards. A report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) noted illicit cultivation in "Kiziklarda" in 2007.[1] Kazakhstan's interior ministry said in 2024 that "Indian" and "Dutch" cannabis with a high THC content had been actively cultivated in Kyzylorda Region since 2014.[2] Police reports since 2009 name plantations or yard crops in the Aral, Kazaly, Karmakshy, Zhalagash, Syrdariya, Shieli and Zhanakorgan districts and in the city of Kyzylorda.
Geography
In 2014 Nurlan Ibrayev, head of the regional police department against the drug trade, said that practically all the sowings were hidden in dense thickets of salt tree (джингиль, jingil), in saxaul stands and in tugai woodland or planted with melons in hard-to-reach places in the countryside.[3] The interior ministry said in 2015 that most of the illegal sowings of that year in Kyzylorda, South Kazakhstan and Jambyl regions were in Kyzylorda Region. The crop was sown in the zones at the edge of the sands, far from roads and settlements, where the fields could be found only from helicopters; the growers used drip irrigation and often enlisted agricultural specialists.[4]
Reported sites include the steppe 170 kilometres south-west of Zhanadarya in Zhalagash district (2009),[5] a glade 25 kilometres from the Kyzylorda–Kumkol highway (2012),[6] the Tilkul irrigation canal in Shieli district, 50 kilometres from the Kyzylorda–Zhezkazgan highway (2012),[7] a place 45 kilometres east of Zhinishkekum in Aral district (2015),[8] the steppe 20 kilometres from Prudkhoz, Tasboget (2015),[4] the steppe called Ақ индий at the aul of Karakol, and the Kosyndy tract at Akkyr in Zhalagash district (2016),[9] and thickets of shengel and saxaul 265 kilometres from the aul of Kyzylkum in Kazaly district (2023).[10]
Cultivation
In 2015 Sultan Kusetov, head of the interior ministry's department against the drug trade, called the plantations found in the region that year Indian cannabis, which he said had been brought from India many years before. He said that after the measures taken in the Chu Valley traffickers had tried to grow cannabis themselves in the regions next to Jambyl: Kyzylorda, Karaganda and South Kazakhstan.[11] In 2018 a group of senators wrote to the interior minister that the climate of Kyzylorda Region favoured the growing of cannabis and that by the ministry's figures Indian cannabis had five times the THC content of the wild cannabis of the Chu.[12] In 2022–2023 an organised group grew "Dutch" cannabis in the region. The security service detained the group; three of its sown fields were destroyed during the investigation and 22 of its members were arrested.[13]
In the 2014 interview the journalist said that the анаша (anasha, the drug made from the plant) that everyone calls кызылординка (kyzylordinka) was prized by dealers and grown by criminals in all but greenhouse conditions; Ibrayev agreed.[3]
In 2015 police in Aral district found a plantation of 3,704 plants weighing 3.3 tonnes and detained three men of the region, who had been living in a hut there; 77 dried plants lay in the hut.[8] The plantation in Zhanakorgan district in 2019 held 3,000 plants, with irrigation hoses, canisters, bedding and dishes.[14] In Kazaly district in 2023 four unemployed men of Kyzylorda city grew 1,086 plants among the shengel and saxaul; two huts of saxaul branches stood at the site.[10] In 2024 a plantation of more than 1,200 plants in a remote part of Syrdariya district, found from the air, had equipment for drip irrigation.[15]
Several growers came from Kyzylorda city: a man of 35 detained with 1,036 plants near the Kumkol highway in 2012[6] and a man of 35 who grew 800 plants by the Tilkul canal the same year.[7] Cannabis is also grown at home. In spring 2014 a man in Karmakshy district planted 568 plants in his yard.[3] In August 2021 police found 1,089 plants, grown to a height of 3–4 metres, in the yard of a house in Kyzylorda.[16] In 2025 a house in the village of Zhanakorgan, turned into a growing room, held 4,190 plants.[17]
Eradication
The police search the region for plantations each summer in a national operation, called Көкнәр in 2015 and 2019 and Қарасора from 2020. In 2009 border guards and the security service destroyed 2,850 plants on 0.8 hectares in Zhalagash district.[5] The ministry said in 2024 that it had searched for the plantations by helicopter for ten years.[2] In the 2015 operation 37 plantations of Indian cannabis, covering more than 50 hectares, were found and destroyed in Kyzylorda Region, with more than 52 tonnes of plants.[11] The regional prosecutor's office reported in 2018 that the number of plantations found had risen from 15 to 84 since 2012 and that 50 tonnes of cannabis had been found in 2017.[18] The senators who wrote to the minister in 2018 counted 104 people convicted in Kyzylorda Region of growing prohibited plants in the previous three years.[12]
The ministry named Kyzylorda Region the leader in cultivation in 2020, when 48 of the 62 plantations it destroyed came from the region, with more than 14 of the more than 20 tonnes of plants.[19] In 2021 the figure was 18 of 20.[20] In 2023 the operation destroyed 65 plantations of cultivated cannabis, over more than 10 hectares, in Kyzylorda, Turkestan and Ulytau regions, with more than 70,000 plants. Helicopters flew 70 sorties over more than 150,000 square kilometres of Kyzylorda, Aktobe, Turkestan and Ulytau regions. Satellite images gave the police 60 points to check.[21] In the first 20 days of the 2026 operation 21 people were detained in the region for growing drugs; military helicopters found 12 hidden plantations in 15 sorties.[22]
The ministry said in 2024 that growers had begun to look for new, hard-to-reach land with a hot, dry climate, which they believed lay beyond the police and the air searches: in Turkestan, Almaty, Jetisu and Ulytau regions and in the west of the country.[2]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Regional Office for Central Asia (April 2008). Illicit drug trends in Central Asia (PDF) (Report). Paris Pact Initiative. p. 23.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Макаров, А. (19 August 2024). "Министерство внутренних дел Казахстана представило многолетние данные". Bizmedia.kz (in русский). Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Джикибаев, Е. (17 October 2014). ""Кызылординка" – не женщина, а наркотик". Караван (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "В Кызылординской, ЮКО и Жамбылской обл пытались культивировать наркосодержащие растения". Zakon.kz (in русский). 7 September 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "В Кызылординской области сотрудниками КНБ уничтожена плантация марихуаны". Kazinform (in русский). 31 July 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "В Кызылорде задержан житель, незаконно выращивающий коноплю". Kazinform (in русский). 11 July 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Сеитова, Д. (7 September 2012). "Вырастил 800 кустов конопли". Караван (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Крупную плантацию конопли обнаружила кызылординская полиция". Казахстанская правда (in русский). 11 August 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Две наркоплантации обнаружили и уничтожили полицейские Кызылорды". NewTimes.kz (in русский). 29 July 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Наркоплантация укрывалась в зарослях саксаула в Кызылординской области (видео)". Казахстанская правда (in русский). 13 June 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Крупные плантации индийской конопли обнаружены в Кызылординской области". Lada.kz (in русский). 17 October 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Сатаева, А. (24 May 2018). "Депутаты обеспокоены индийской коноплей в Кызылординской области". Tengrinews.kz (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Выращивавшую коноплю ОПГ ликвидировали в Кызылординской области". Казахстанская правда (in русский). 28 August 2024. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Крупная наркоплантация выявлена в Кызылординской области". Zakon.kz (in русский). 25 June 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Малгаждарова, И. (25 July 2024). "Во время воздушной разведки найдены крупные наркоплантации в регионах Казахстана". NewTimes.kz (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "В крупную наркоплантацию превратил свой двор житель Кызылорды". Казахстанская правда (in русский). 19 August 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Лукашева, К. (15 May 2025). "Хозяина "дома с сюрпризом" задержали в Кызылординской области". NUR.KZ (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Сабеков, С. (5 June 2018). "Резко возросло число наркоплантаций в Кызылординской области". Kazinform (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Стативкина, А. (9 November 2020). "Три ОПГ ликвидировали в Казахстане". Zakon.kz (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "20 наркоплантаций уничтожили в Казахстане". Kazinform (in русский). 29 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Рахимова, А. (9 October 2023). "За наркодилерами в Казахстане следят из космоса". NewTimes.kz (in русский). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "ОПМ «Қарасора»: 21 человек задержан". 24KZ (in русский). 26 June 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.