A vast smuggling ring is exposed in Kyrgyzstan, to popular outrage
Officials admit $1bn was siphoned out of the poor, landlocked country
THE VICTIM was a Chinese citizen. He was shot in a gangland-style killing in Istanbul, the biggest city in Turkey. But the smuggling racket on which he had just blown the whistle was centred on Kyrgyzstan, a poor Central Asian country of 6m which has been a transit point between China and Europe for centuries.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “The bilk road”
From the December 7th 2019 edition
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