On July 19, 2024, in an insider article titled: “The Murder of Aidos Sadykov: Is Gadzhi Gadzhiev Related to It?” we reminded our readers about a man who, according to our insiders, allegedly controls the illegal transportation of goods from China to Kazakhstan (and further to Russia) and makes huge amounts of money from this shadow business.

Let us especially note (this is important) that the money is much greater than what his numerous predecessors had previously managed to “earn”.

And all this is thanks to two things:

• the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the numerous sanctions that followed the invasion by the United States, the European Union and their allies against Russia and Belarus, Russian and Belarusian individuals and legal entities, the main goal of which is to prevent the import of Western and other products, primarily dual-use products, into these two countries;
• Kazakhstan’s strategically convenient location between China and Russia.

But before we begin to describe the current business model of Mr. Gadzhiev and his “company,” we would like to point out that for many reasons we cannot verify and confirm the information that our sources share with us.

The main reasons for this are:

• the crazy profitability of the smuggling business we are commenting on (nobody wants to lose that much money);
• interest in the effective, continuous and secret work of the “channel” on the part of influential security officials, not only Kazakh and Russian, but also, as we have learned, Chinese;
• fear of numerous participants in this large-scale business process both before the law and before Gadzhi Gadzhiev and his associates.

Therefore, in order to avoid possible accusations of slander and so on, we declare that everything said by our sources is merely their personal opinion.

Well, since we consider this opinion to be extremely important and worthy of verification by competent authorities, we decided to retell it.  

Let’s start retelling this "opinion" with the information that Gadzhi Gadzhiev and his "company" control contraband deliveries of goods from the territory of China only through Khorgos. All other checkpoints on the Kazakh-Chinese border are allegedly outside his sphere of control and are "operated" by completely different people, including those connected with crime.

We were also informed that after the leaks of information a year ago, including through BASE, which caused great concern among everyone involved in this “business”, Gadzhiev more than doubled the number of companies involved in customs clearance and transportation of goods across the border.

According to the latest data, there are now more than 60 of these companies, and all of them are controlled by the "father of smuggling." This sharp increase in the number of participants is due both to the growth in the volume of shipments and to the desire to mislead outside observers, saying that there is competition here.

The "business" itself is organized as follows: cargo that needs to be shipped to Kazakhstan and Russia is collected on the territory of China, both through firms close to Gadzhi Gadzhiev and his "company", and through regular intermediary structures. They are processed, divided into batches, loaded and sent (usually by road) across the Kazakh-Chinese border. The most valuable cargo passes through "familiar" customs officers through established channels without inspection or testing.

After which, the Chinese goods themselves and goods produced in the United States and the European Union and intended for sale in Kazakhstan, but delivered through the territory of China, after crossing the border are transported to numerous warehouses and processing points, from where they are distributed among Kazakhstani recipients and buyers.

Goods destined for Russia are brought to a large temporary storage warehouse on the highway between the cities of Kunayev and Almaty. There, if necessary, they are stored, processed, and then shipped to Russia through the Kazakh-Russian border.

What is very important: if earlier we were sure that on the Chinese side all cargo shipped to Kazakhstan undergoes customs clearance and, accordingly, data on export operations are included in Chinese customs statistics, now we have begun to doubt this.

According to insiders, at least fifteen years ago, people who controlled smuggling from China to Kazakhstan established secret contacts with representatives of the Chinese special services. And so close that the "fathers of smuggling" were even allowed to visit the territory of China without documents and visas, including cities located far from the border, and security officials with general ranks communicated with them there.

If our suspicions are true, then the smuggling of goods from China to Russia under the supervision of Gadzhi Gadzhiev does not appear in official statistics at all – neither in China itself, nor in Kazakhstan as an intermediary country, nor in Russia as the final consumer country.  

Accordingly, the collective West may well have claims against China and Chinese companies as producers and suppliers, China and Kazakhstan as transit countries, but since they are not supported by any documents, including customs statistics, making claims against them seems ineffective.

...They also told us a lot of interesting things about how Gadzhi Gadzhiev’s "business" is built, what local organized crime groups are involved in it, why Kazakhstani security forces turn a blind eye to Gadzhiev’s actions, why tax and customs authorities do not see how much money is being wasted... But this is a topic for the next articles.