In the Irgiz district of the Aktobe region, police seized more than 300 saiga horns and weapons from herders.
According to Polisia.kz, on the winter road 'Kosbarmak' at a farm in the Irgiz district, police seized 5 bags containing 320 saiga horns, as well as unregistered hunting rifles.
The suspects explained that they planned to sell the horns to middlemen. Law enforcement officers have launched a pre-trial investigation into the matter.
It was previously reported that in the first 4 months of this year, 15,200 metres of fishing nets, 9 tonnes of fish and fish products, around 3,500 saiga horns, 135 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 over 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 the attic, the total value of which is estimated at 1.2 billion tenge.
In August, in the Ulytau region, armed poachers engaged in illegal saiga hunting were detained. The detainees were travelling on two motorcycles. The poachers were found with 15 saiga carcasses, 29 sawn-off horns, and two smoothbore shotguns.
In September, law enforcement stopped a car near the settlement of Karabutak. Inside the vehicle, bags of meat were discovered. The man behind the wheel explained that the bags contained the meat of five saigas, which he claimed to have hit with his motorcycle in the steppe on the territory of the Irgiz district. Preliminary damage was estimated at 20 million tenge.
The editorial team of FBRK has compiled a full chronology of the campaign to 'remove' saigas from their natural habitat. It can be viewed via the link.