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What stands behind the Shimkent’s mafia?
Alexei Goncharov
Is “Texas” so fearful?
The official statistical figures of the police are quite fine. According to some articles there is a small growth and according to others there is a reduction, but the major point is that the number of crimes per head of the region’s population is considerably less than in the Northern regions of the country.
- So don’t they name us “Texas” in vain? – I’ve given this question to the lieutenant colonel Arman Orazaliev, the first Deputy Chief of DI (Department of the Interior) SKR.
- Maybe you will not trust me, but I think that they call us in vain, said my vis-à-vis smiling - as a whole, the criminogenic situation in the region is better than in other regions of Kazakhstan. It seems to me that our people have more “divine fear” in their souls compared to people in the North.
It can be laughed at but the police colleagues of the region, who worked in the North, are sure that there aren’t such criminals in the South as in the North, although it would be unfair to see the local criminals as lambs.
The strange killings
The loud and strange killings happen in the South Kazakhstani region, although they’ve become less in number in recent times. However we should take a glance at the recent history and remind the general public of those crimes which still disturb the imagination of Shimkent people because they are still undisclosed and not motivated outwardly.
At the very beginning of 2001 Sauletbek Kaldibayuli, the deputy of local maslihat, the candidate of medical science, the Chief medical officer of the regional TB dispensary, was found dead in his official room. The number of killers remains unknown. The physician was struck by face with brass-knuckles for two times as a result his jaw was broken, and then he was cut down with metallic angle bar. The motives for killing such famous person in the city remained unclear. Although the purse and the cap of the dead disappeared, it cannot be called a common robbery. But at the same time, it is difficult to say that it is assassination. The best detectives of the criminal investigation department worked day and night to reveal it but there was no success.
However let’s go further. In summer of 2000 the Head of children’s holiday camp located in one of the pictorial canyons of the region Natalya Klimova was found lying in the puddle of blood by the children who came to sport ground for morning exercises in the suburbs of the camp. The famous female teacher in Shimkent was cut down.
There are a lot of versions of this killing. It was established that there was a theft of 1,2m tenges in the camp. But the case wasn’t proceeded.
And more from the line of ominous mysteries. In 1993 Fatima Amirova, the Editor of one of the first independent newspapers of Shimkent “Kto”, was brutally murdered after the violent tortures. The murder had no relations to anybody or anything from her professional activity. However it remained just a mystery what the strangers searched in the room turned upside-down, for what they tortured and killed this pretty and permanently well-disposed woman.
After several years from that event, the Major-General Moldiyar Orazaliev, the former first Chief Deputy of regional Authority of the Interior (UVD) told the author of these lines that he knew the identity of killer, but he also went into hiding in Azerbaijan. The extradition of criminals from raging Caucasus wasn’t possible at that time. The loudest killing among the undisclosed murders in Shimkent happened in 1996. Mardan Saparbaev, the legendary person without any exaggerations: the founder and Head of Shimkent’s institute of physical training, academician, was murdered in the verandah of his own mansion by the shot from rifle. It was believed that Mardan was one of the shady owners of the city. The shot cancelled his brilliant career.
The police rummaged from top to bottom. The relatives of Mardan announced a large money reward for those who would find the killer. But all the attempts were in vain. In fact a poor businessman suffered from this case who was exposed by poor debtor that it was him who killed Saparbaev. The poor man was beaten by the police like a pear and certainly in vain.
In anyway this strange killing didn’t enter the list of assassinations.
Yes we can find the signs of assassination in this case –said, the known colonel of the police, -
But where have you seen the killer going to the work with small-bore rifle?
There was a single shot and the fact that it turned out to be fatal is just a pure chance. If Mardan hadn’t bent to tie shoe-laces the bullet would have probably hit his shoulder.
Know-how in uncovering the “assassinations”
We can find the real assassinations in the South as well, so that there are no doubts in their nature. But as a rule they are uncovered by the police. And for the honour of regional police we should note here that their colleagues from other regions learn from them how to uncover the crimes of such kind.
The first assassination in Shimkent was uncovered yet in 2000. The motive is common - money. As a matter of fact it was done because of little amount of money. The family of Bezhentsov borrowed thousand dollars from their friend. They couldn’t return it and their friend couldn’t wait any longer and ordered them. As a result the killer murdered the mother, daughter, and their granddaughter in arms. Everybody talked about the maniac in the city. However everything became clear soon. The killer committed a suicide in the prison cell.
The last assassination in the city happened in the February of 2003. It was a daring murder. The 53-year old businessman Yuri Kim known by the nick Mongol in the city was shot on the stairs of the porch of local polyclinic №5 in broad daylight. It took 3 months to uncover this case.
The police immediately decided that the killing was done demonstratively to frighten one of the possible friends of the dead. The latter was at law with the competitors for the wine workshop in one of the districts of the region.
Three operative groups were created for this case. At that the members of each group didn’t know about the existence of others. One group learned the routes of the victim, other group was engaged in his personal contacts, the third group worked with on-line data.
The special analytical center learned the works of each group.
This is the new method in tactics of uncovering the assassinations in republic - said the major general Raimhan Uzbekgaliev, that time’s Chief of Department of the Interior.
The killer was found first from whom the pistol was seized. After that the agent was uncovered and in the end the customer was found. All of them were brought to Almaty. The customer, the important official in the past, evaluated the life of businessman in sum of 20 thousand dollars.
However the South wouldn’t deserve its name if it hadn’t the paradoxical continuation.
The analytical center for uncovering the assassinations was headed by Daribai Shalaev, the Chief of the region’s criminal police, the bright professional. Had the journalists congratulated him with success he himself was found behind the prison cells for trading with drugs. Therefore it deserves the name Texas.
The evil robbers
The robbers could be found in Shimkent up to the recent times as well these robber being the natural and shooting on the horses, oh excuse me, made a slip in speaking, running from the chase in their cars.
Once the robbers attacked the pawn-shop. They killed the guard, but while he was resisting the cashier managed to call the police. The bandits ran away, but less than in a month they were captured. They were found through prostitutes. It turned out that all three of the robbers formerly had been from children’s home who lived with commune. They successfully earned their living by stealing, and their first robbery turned out to be the last one.
However there were even successful robberies in the city. In 1998 the criminals robbed the collectors of the “Caspian” bank and seized 600 thousand dollars. This daring crime remained unsolved.
The criminals were perfectly aware of the whole route of money which was brought to Shimkent from Almaty. The dollars were taken at that moment when the collectors were carrying them from their cars into the building which was located 15 metres far from the Bank. There was a shooting; one of the collectors was wounded. The cherry-coloured car (Zhiguli car of the ninth model) in which the robbers came was found in the place, 20 kilometres far from the city next day. The investigation came to a standstill on this point. It is true that next year the pistol of robbers was found in Turkistan but it didn’t give anything to the investigation.
However, such plan didn’t work with ATFB. Here the money was transferred from the car into the bank side by side. The bandits and the guard were shooting each other like a maniac and from the close distance. The assailants had to step back without getting the wanted prey. But it is not a single mystery of the case. The very next day we came to the place of crime with that time’s first Deputy Chief of Authority of the Interior (UVD) of the region colonel Yuri Vasilenko.
- Lots of shells were shot to each other from 7 metres, and nobody had hit anyone.
The evil 90s passed. There are not so many crimes in “Texas” now as it were then. However it depends on how it happened. The criminal refused from the pistols, knives and proceeded to the State sphere.
By Alexei Goncharov. Shimkent.
The life according to the concepts
Here we mean the large sums of bribes and the high posts of their recipients…The financial police of SKR for the first time managed to arrest not some villages’ akims who break the law for dozen of hundred dollars but those who claim to thousands of transoceanic currency according to their positions. So Shimkent is in our days.
The Southerners have long been certain that not any of the tenders was won without so-called kickback given to the officials organizing it. Now the rumour seen as gossip became true. The Deputy Director of the Department and the budget planning was arrested in his official room while accepting the bribe of 58300 USA dollars by the financial police. The money was blackmailed from the construction company for promoting it in winning the tender for the construction of the school’s building. And here the police confirmed: people don’t talk in vain.
The rumours about the kickbacks are now officially confirmed, said Serik Beysaliev, the Deputy Chief of the Department of financial police of SKR, in briefing.
The high-ranking lady is arrested. She is accused according to the clause “Attempt at grafting on a special large scale”.
The Akim of Suzakski district of SKR is also arrested by the financial police, here the sum of bribe is less than 5 thousand dollars but the condition of taking it didn’t happen without spicy nuances, after Akim accepted bribe from the minor official for the privatization of his official home he, as it is said in the official news release of the financial police: “By using his office position, cynically showing his arrogance struck with the money accepted by him as a bribe on the head of a giver and demanded extra 2 thousand dollars from him”. After the minute the officers of the financial police were in the cabinet of Akim.
The significance of this matter lies in fact that Akim who was captured while taking a bribe for the first time in the history of the region was not appointed by someone, but has been elected like many other Akims to his position as an experiment several years ago. However the State affairs agency considers that it means nothing.
The election of Akim cannot be related to this situation. I don’t think that this event will have influence on the evaluation of the results of election of Akims, says Bulat Urkumbaev, the Chairman of SK branch of State affairs.
By summing up their work in 2007 the financial police note that three sectors are distinguished on the field of corruption… The first place is occupied by the medical sector (30 episodes), they are followed by the officers of police (26 episodes) and the workers of Akimats jut take the third place with 18 episodes on this chart of ranks.
It seems that not any event of State significance which is in addition popular passes without violation in SKR. According to the results of inspection of documents about the legalization of property many cases of falsifying them were uncovered by Office of Public Prosecutor in connection with which the criminal cases were brought.
Maybe the criminal groups worked around the commission for legalization in direct contact with them, said Kanat Mamaev, the Chief of the Department for the control of legality of activity of state structures, so by surprising everybody who came to the Coordinating Council of law machinery.
Already 927 fake disposals of Akim are uncovered by the prosecutors which are related to the village Katyn-Kopr belonging to Shimkent as if they were accepted in the period of 2001-2003 years. At that according to the data of region’s archives this Akimat made 30-70 decisions a year. The police is sure that the documents are falsified in the period of legalization.
This criminal group continued to work because of the fact that Kulpatchaeva, the former Akim of village Katyn-Kopr died in 2004, and Akimat itself was liquidated with the decision of region’s Akim №506 from 17th November of 2004. This is real blasphemy - the signature of the dead person who died several years ago was put on the disposals, said the prosecutor with shock. According to his words the procedure of legalization in the district and in Shimkent as a whole didn’t meet the demands of law, and it was let to develop as it might, practically everything was legalized indiscriminately on the level of criminal, says the prosecutor in the firm belief.
Up to the present time four suits are brought to the court by the regional Office of Public Prosecutor and four criminal cases are brought. Nobody dares to predict what foggy cases will arise from the deep swamp of legalization in the Office of Public Prosecutor, but they are sure that there will be more.
The Southerners frequently say that they are Texas not because of the fact that they shoot or kill much but because of the fact that the South lives by concepts not by laws. And as a matter of fact anyone in the city will tell you the price of teacher’s position at school. The posts in the budget organizations like schools are just sold. However these are just rumour. Nobody will say it direct to the camera or dictaphone but had you switched them off they would tell you lots of histories from this subject.
Recently one respectable lady, officer of the police, told me directly that we should submit it and go on living.
The corruption can be revealed in one day. It is enough just to see in what mansion he lives and what car he drives and compare their prices with his official salary. Only who will do it? - said she.
If the corrupt official is arrested in the South it cannot be doubted that this man violated unwritten concepts that is either he took the money and didn’t keep his promise or demanded extra kickback. Then the offended briber goes to the police without knowing that he himself is also a criminal according to Criminal Code and soon the journalists learn about disclosing the next crime at the level of corruption. In this respect the SKR can be called Texas.
The children of prairies
The shocking frames shot with cell phone were intercepted by the officers of Enbekshin regional Office of Public Prosecutor of Shimkent city. The videotape recording shows how the group of girls beats and humiliates their contemporary demanding money from her. The inspection held by the prosecutors cleared up that this was not the first case of hooliganism and blackmail in the schools of Shimkent.
According to the preliminary version these frames were shot for frightening the future victims. All the participants of such terrible act are 15 years old. The information about the hooliganism and blackmail in the schools of Shimkent has long been coming to the Office of Public Prosecutor. However there were no documental confirmations for that according to the words of Yerzhan Yeralieva, the public prosecutor of Enbekshin district. The parents of the victim turned to the law machinery but the case was closed due to the fact of reconciliation of sides.
The girl who was shot on these frames has been beaten for several times. As the inspection of prosecutor showed the sum of money which was blackmailed by the girls from their victim was initially 5 thousand tenges, and then it was 20 thousand tenges. Both of the participants - the victim and the gold-digger initially were the pupils of the same school. After the first attack the parents of a girl transferred her to another school. However the girl was found by offenders there as well. The beating and humiliation shot with the cell phone took place on the waste ground behind the school.
The criminal case is brought about this fact. Now the Office of Public Prosecutor is clarifying all the facts of the incident.
The instigator of beating and blackmailing was arrested and taken to investigation cell. The confederate who made the video recording was put in the center of temporary isolation and adaptation of teenagers till the end of investigation. In the municipal government of education, it was decided to punish the guilty girls in a very strict way. All the loud crimes with participation of non-adults should be widely given by mass media, the surnames of the parents, teachers, and the directors of schools should be made public, and the legal procedures should be shown on TV. Such decision was taken in the expanded session of the commission for the rights of non-adults.
Although the statistics of juvenile and non-adults’ delinquency in the region is better than in the northern and eastern regions of the country the number of juvenile crimes is growing.
More than 50% of the crimes of non-adults belong to Shimkent.
The tendency of using the fire-arms by the non-adults is growing.
The school inspectors who are 102 in number frequently discover the appearance of teenagers with sawn-off guns. One of the inspectors was rewarded with car by the Akim of Shimkent for prevention of school dismantling with the use of fire-arms.
In the opinion of the administration of regional Department of education there is a lack of competent psychologists in the schools. Now their positions are occupied by the specialists of another profile.
The authorities haven’t yet decided how to handle with the problem of juvenile delinquency. For the sake of justice we should note that it was the important issue in Shimkent. However something changes by time. In the Soviet times the city was divided into the separate districts which were controlled by one of the groups of teenagers as “starogorodskiye”, “charodeyskie”, “deserovskie” and etc. sometimes used to wage war among themselves and used to invade contiguous territories, always used to sort out their relationship in the Central park. They used sticks, brass-knuckles and the chains of cycles in these clashes. However, the press didn’t write anything about these clashes for some reasons; that’s why, now it is thought that the situation has really become dangerous.
Why? First of all, the fire-arms began to appear in the schools, which didn’t exist in the past. Secondly, the life of the adults according to the concepts couldn’t stop leading to such life of non-adults. The separations into the districts in the city didn’t happen and now the children go with the whole school against other schools. The exactions of the pupils from other pupils have become an everyday occurrence. It is motivated by the gathering of the money for some thievish home.
The police think that the adult criminals stand behind all these things, but up to the present time none of such authorities has been captured and punished. Exactly this situation worries the civilians who seem to have been used to everything.
“The red city of the South”
My interlocutor is a famous person in Shimkent. Formally he is the ordinary official, per se the poet from God, perfect singer and above all the person who is well-known with the criminal world as well as with the police. There were times when he even could solve the most difficult conflicts and do it for the full satisfaction of the sides without allowing the bloodshed and fight. We have known each other for many years, and therefore, speak frankly.
- Tolik (the name is changed), why do they call us Texas in anyway?
- In my opinion, the explanation is quite simple. The first reason is its geography. Chimkent has always been the terminal station in the traffic of drugs. During the times of USSR these drugs were hashish and marijuana, now it is heroin. The city had its own source of drugs, the chemical pharmaceutical plant, from where the so-called “dirt” – wastes from manufacturing the opiates was stolen. The southerners have always been more enterprising than the northerners. It is true for any State. Texas in USA is in the South too. During the Soviet times the enterprising people were engaged in the purchasing the vegetables and resale them to North. These were the so-called pourers. The decent wealth was gathered in such way. This was the illegal money in USSR. The criminal is there where there is illegal money.
However, it should be noted here that although the Shimkent has a criminal glory, at the same time it is called a “red city” which means that the rulers here are not the criminals but the police. Practically there is no racket in the city. Certainly, once there was some Sabyr who wished to become the criminal king. But he was imprisoned, and after escaping from the jail he became … a peaceful farmer.
The problem was very critical in the city in its time, there were even times when the musicians refused to play in the restaurants because all their income were taken by the so-called “saigas”- last night’s emigrants from the villages who had poured into Shimkent yet in the reconstruction period.
By the way, when Sabyr was captured by the police, some private lawyers tried to announce him as a Kazakh Robin Hood. The pressure on the administration of UWSD of the region was great, but it could stand it.
- So how can it be explained?
- There is a counteraction to any action. Our police managed to find the people of high professionalism, who could control the criminality. It is enough to bring as an example the general Orazaliev who now works in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Astana. It was directly said in the criminal world that wherever he went the condition became “red city”. Besides in the South everybody knows each other. There are no thieves in law here, but instead the classical hierarchy of criminal world is broken. In other words, the police is much stronger than criminality here. The latter itself is interested in calmness. The people who were imprisoned cannot stand the bandits here and very soon make the social outcasts from them. Therefore if we speak where the criminal capital of Kazakhstan is, then it is either Almaty or Taraz and those who made their capital in unjust way in 90s have changed their pistols into the pens long ago and have become the respectable businessmen and even deputies.
- Does it mean that there is no Shimkent mafia?
- Certainly not in the classical meaning! However, there is a corruption of the authorities that themselves have become the kind of mafia, but I won’t talk about that.
How to get the million or pseudo-killer in South Kazakshtani way
In the end I’ve got the stunning history which will make clear why the southerners are considered to be from Texas. It includes the cut human head in the sack with blood, the runaway of customers, the triumph of a killer, perplexity of law machinery and the triumph of a victim. The plot which was involuted like the evil Hollywood thriller has been in the ears of everyone in Chimkent several years ago. But at that time nobody knew the whole truth, but now became known.
“The gathering of snakes” and “the Shimkent mafia”
The name of now the late Temirtas Tleulesov is known probably by everyone who is interested in news in SKR. In the first half of 90s this active man, athlete-wrestler was knocked out by the local elite from the profitable chair of the chief of city’s petroleum storage depot and since then waged irreconcilable war with this elite.
This war primarily was the war of compromising evidences. Coming from those circles, against which he opposed now, Temirtas as a deputy of local maslihat used his platform to nail the tails and the manes of administration of the region and some large prominent businessmen, at that, the loud surnames and the large sums of money stolen from State were made public. All this could be found on the pages of independent newspapers. Therefore the southerners were puzzled why Tleulesov wasn’t imprisoned for the slander or if he was right, then why the officials weren’t imprisoned about whom he spoke.
In 1998 T. Tleulesov published the book “Ordaly zhylan” (the gathering of snakes) and in 2000 his second book “The Shimkent mafia” (the documental detective) appeared in the publishing house “Deuir” in Almaty with the edition of 10 thousand copies. He blamed the VIPs of SKR, who now occupy the prominent positions in Astana and some of whom are the deputies of Majilis who come from South, for the terrible sins.
The curious thing is the annotation of the book: “The public figure, former deputy of South Kazakhstan’s regional maslihat Temirtas Tleulesov tells about the corruption in Shimkent. The book is full of exposures justified by the documental bases. The heroes of the vivid detective became beginning from important officials and ending with the head of the region and the law machinery of Kazakhstan.
As a result of this epic work, the author was imprisoned for two years, but not for the slander but for the hooliganism in the staff of one of the candidates to the position of deputy of Majilis. The sentence in the court was read in the absence of him for some reason. Temirtas Tleulesov successfully disappeared and up to his death for several years was considered to be wanted although the notified people talked that nobody searched him.
- He won’t make a speech anywhere now; therefore, let he lives in a calm way. In anyway he is our man, said the police officer of high standing to our correspondent.
Oh! The murderous assault on you is prepared
One of the headings of the book “Shimkent mafia” has such name “The first murderous assault on my life”.
“Once my frightened friends have come to me and said:
- Oh! Bay Temirtas, the murderous assault is prepared on you. Seksen employed the killer. Be careful. At that time, not so many people knew who the “killers” were. We haven’t even heard such word. “Don’t be so panic. It can’t be true”, I said without giving importance to their warnings. It turned out to be true”.
Further we have got the confused story of the fact that the killer by frightening to murder just decided to take the money from the customers and the sluggish Committee for National Security (former KGB) couldn’t capture anyone on time. And the author himself was saved only by the wish of God.
If there was a murderous assault or not was the question that Chimkent journalists asked themselves.
And now after the many years, the reporter had the opportunity to talk to S., the man who was called the killer and scapegrace by Temirtas Tleulesov… The real detective history begins right here.
Autol, sheep’s blood and papier-mâché
An intelligent person in a good suit, the famous lawyer in his region, is standing in front of me. I involuntarily pay attention to his fingers covered with tattoos.
- There was a time when I was imprisoned, says he smiling, but now everything is in the past. By the way I learned all the Codes in the prison. Therefore it wasn’t so difficult for me to study in the faculty of law.
- And what about the book “Sultan: the scapegrace who was imprisoned for four times”?
- I don’t deny my past sins, but I have never been a scapegrace. And the situation with the murderous assault was somewhat comic.
Further we will go on with the first person narration.
It was the early 90s, the life was hard. I tried to do husbandry, but wasn’t successful. One needs a starting capital for any kind of activity. The customers first called me and proposed a good amount of money. I wasn’t going to murder anyone; particularly I wasn’t so closely acquainted with Temirtas. However I wanted to earn money.
I’ve made some inquiries. I learned that those people in whose way Tleulesov was preventing them to divide the income, the respectable cowards decided to create such plan.
We met. They prepaid me and asked to bring the cut ears of the victim as a proof. The ears of Temirtas are the ears of a wrestler, I mean broken so that they cannot be confused.
Then I went to the victim and explained the situation. I said that everything would be normal: I will earn and he will get rid of his enemies; otherwise they could have employed another killer. He agreed with me, but then I didn’t even suppose that all our conversation was recorded into dictaphone by Temirtas.
I left for Tashkent and he as it turned out went to the Committee for National Security (former KGB).
I ordered the human head made from papier-mâché in Tashkent. On the returning I went to the river bank with victim and spilled autol on his shirt and took a photograph of it. It looked like a blood on the black and white film.
The photos together with the plaster cast of head placed in a muddy polyethylene sack with the blood of sheep were brought to the customers.
- They were stunned. It remained only to get all the money. And right here, I learned that the officers of the Committee for National Security (former KGB) began shadowing me.
The last stage was the most difficult. I needed to get money near the building site. I had foreboding that the officers of the Committee for National Security would be there too. When the customers passed me the money, I managed to hide the package with them in the building site, and I myself sat into the accidental car with another package which stood nearby. I introduced myself as a policeman to the guy and girl sitting in the car. I smoked a cigar. I left the package on the seat of a car and said that the special operation was held here, and therefore, they needed to go fast.
As far as I left the car the officers of the Committee for National Security followed the leaving car.
Certainly, I was arrested. However there was nothing criminate me in. Everybody was alive. As I supposed the customers took to flight. So this history ended successfully after the several months.
S. has never got in touch with criminal since then.
