BISHKEK. Feb 24 (Interfax) - The United States has offered $1 million as a reward for information about the network of Kyrgyz drug lord Kamchybek Kolbayev, the U.S. embassy in Bishkek said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The United States is also currently offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the disruption of Kamchybek Kolbayev's criminal network," the embassy said.
The United States will continue to support the fight against corruption and organized crime in the Kyrgyz Republic and across the globe," the embassy said.
"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," arrested on counts of corruption and money laundering, it said.
Kolbayev was detained in Bishkek on October 22, 2020.
In 2012, the U.S. security services listed Kolbayev among the world's major drug lords. In 2017, the United States blacklisted ten crime lords from former Soviet republics, including Kolbayev. If any assets of the blacklisted individuals are detected in the U.S. territory, they will be frozen.
According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Kolbayev is a member of an international criminal network, Brothers' Circle, engaged in bribery, human trafficking, and other kinds of illicit activity.