A suspected poacher has been detained in the Aktobe region.
According to Polisia.kz, law enforcement officers stopped a Lada Largus car on the Samara — Shymkent highway near the village of Karabutak. Inside the car, bags of meat were found.
The man behind the wheel explained that the bags contained the meat of five saiga antelopes, which he claimed to have hit with his motorcycle in the steppe in the Irgyz district.
The preliminary damage is estimated at 20 million tenge. The police have launched a criminal investigation.
It was previously reported that in the first four months of this year, 15,200 metres of fishing nets, 9 tonnes of fish and fish products, about 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 for 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 August, in the Ulytau region, armed poachers engaged in illegal saiga hunting were detained. The suspects were travelling on two motorcycles. The poachers were found with 15 saiga carcasses, 29 sawn-off horns, and two smoothbore shotguns.
The editorial board of FBRK has compiled a full chronology of the campaign to 'remove' saiga antelopes from their natural habitat. You can view it via the link.