Kyrgyz security chief vows to completely do away with organised crime

04.01.2024, 12:54 exclusive.kz

Kyrgyz security chief Kamchybek Tashiyev has vowed to continue fighting organised crime in 2024 until all “remaining” gang members have been “wiped out”.

“In 2023 we broke the backs of the organised criminal groups. From now on in our country there will be no bandits, no organised groups, nor [criminal] ‘authorities’,” Tashiyev said at a ceremony to hand over new vehicles to the police in southern Jalal-Abad Region on Wednesday.

“Our country will be law-based, fair and free. If there are any criminal gang members left, we will wipe them out in 2024,” he said.

Tashiyev said that in the new year he would fight not only criminals who were “at large” but would also “sort out the prisons”.

He also said that in the past year the security service had managed to “considerably” reduce and “practically eliminate” corruption in government bodies.

The Kyrgyz security service began a wide crackdown on the criminal world following the killing in a special operation in October of the country’s most powerful crime boss Kamchy Kolbayev.

It is known that Kolbayev’s support was instrumental in President Sadyr Japarov’s and Tashiyev’s rise to power amid popular protests in 2020. Kolbayev’s removal has significantly increased Tashiyev’s political weight, and weakened President Japarov, according to observers.

Tashiyev has also strengthened his hand recently through considerably beefing up the security service by upgrading its equipment, refurbishing its buildings across the country and increasing officers’ pay.

Tashiyev previously pledged to focus in 2024 on strengthening the police service.