The U.S. Embassy to Bishkek Wants to Combat Criminal Network in Kyrgyzstan

The United States is offering a $1 million reward for information that can help to bring Kamchybek Kolbaev, boss of a well-known Kyrgyzstani criminal network, to justice, according to Interfax news agency citing the U.S. Embassy to Bishkek.

As the Embassy’s press service has reported, the United States will continue to support the fight against corruption and organized crime in the Kyrgyz Republic and across the globe.

«The United States recognizes the destabilizing effects of corruption around the world and has made combating it a priority. The U.S. government has confiscated and successfully returned over $1 billion in corrupt proceeds to victim countries. In 2020 alone, the United States publicly designated 41 corrupt foreign government officials, denying them and their families’ access to the United States, including Raimbek Matraimov, former deputy head of the Kyrgyz customs service, who is charging in corruption and laundering of illegal revenues,» the press service said.

On October 22, 2020, criminal lord Kamchybek Kolbaev was arrested in Bishkek.

In 2012 American law enforcement services included Kolbaev in the list of the biggest drug dealers in the world.

In 2017 ten criminal lords from the former Soviet Union including Kolbaev were added to the «blacklist.» That means if any of them possess something on American soil, that property should be arrested.

As the U.S. Department of Finance has reported, Kolbaev, a member of the international criminal organization Brother’s Circle, is responsible for bribery, illicit human trafficking, and other crimes.