The Kostanay District Court has heard a criminal case against a defendant accused of illegal possession and transportation of saiga antelope horns. According to the press service of the department, police officers detained the defendant on the Auliekol highway.
In the car he had rented, illegally obtained 823 saiga horns were found, valued at more than 2 billion tenge. It became known that the perpetrator intended to transport them from Astana to Kostanay.
The court found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to 8 years in prison with a ban on engaging in hunting activities for 5 years.
Recall that earlier it was reported that in the first 4 months of the current year, 15,200 metres of fishing nets, 9 tonnes of fish and fish products, approximately 3,500 saiga horns, 135 units of hunting weapons, and 81 cubic metres of illegally harvested timber were seized from illegal circulation.
In March, the border service department of the National Security Committee of the Zhetysu region detained three citizens of Kazakhstan in the border zone attempting to export 1,382 saiga horns. The damage to the state was then estimated at more than 3.5 billion tenge. Incidentally, according to our data, one horn on the black market costs around $2,000.
In June, it became known that in the Zhetysu region, a local resident was detained who was storing saiga horns in his attic, the total value of which was estimated at 1.2 billion tenge.
In September, at one of the farms in the Irgiz district of the Aktobe region, police officers discovered 5 sacks containing 320 saiga horns, as well as unregistered hunting rifles.
The FBRK editorial team has compiled a complete chronology of the campaign to 'remove' saiga antelopes from their natural habitat. It can be viewed via the link.