Uzbek “mafia” boss under investigation amid crackdown on organised crime 

Uzbek authorities have briefly arrested and opened a criminal case against one of the country’s biggest criminal bosses amid what looks like a major crackdown on organised crime. 

Salim Abduvaliev, known as ‘Salimbay’, is under investigation on charges of illegal possession of firearms, Tashkent police said. Pledging confidentiality, the police also urged the public to report if anyone “has come into harm” as a result of Abduvaliev’s actions. 

One of Uzbekistan’s biggest sponsors of sports, since 2017 Abduvaliev has been deputy head of the National Olympic Committee. He has headed the country’s Wrestling Association since 1997. Abduvaliev has also won two state awards for his contribution to developing national sport.  

US diplomatic cables leaked in 2011 described Abduvaliev as a mafia boss with close ties to Uzbek government ministers. Crime experts say that Abduvaliev consolidated Uzbek organized crime groups in the 1990s. 

The news of Abduvaliev’s arrest followed sweeping police raids in Tashkent that targeted “street gangs” and criminal groups, and the arrests of two more known major crime leaders – Saidaziz Saydaliyev (known as ‘Saidaziz Medgorodok’) and Bakhtiyor Kudratullayev (‘Bakhti Tashkentsky’) on charges of extortion. Kudratullayev is also charged with possession of a large amount of drugs. 

On 2 December Tashkent police warned the public “to be cautious” because it was taking “preventive measures to improve the crime situation”. 

It is reported that the police have also been conducting raids in the eastern Fergana Region and have arrested some 40 suspected criminal gang members. 

The Sweden-based independent Eltuz Telegram channel said, citing anonymous sources, that Abduvaliev was arrested in his Tashkent residence on 1 December by masked special purpose police officers.  

The channel said that Abduvaliev, aged 73, felt unwell at the police station and was taken to hospital. After receiving medical treatment, he was sent home in an ambulance, but the ambulance was “intercepted” by law-enforcement officers, who re-arrested Abduvaliev.  

Abduvaliev was released on Tuesday, four days after his detention, on condition he wouldn’t leave the country, according to Eltuz. 

Eltuz also said that the authorities attempted to arrest another known criminal boss, Gafur Rakhimov. However, he “was not found either at home [in Tashkent] or at his country house”. It is believed that Rakhimov has either left Uzbekistan, or gone into hiding inside the country, the report said. 

Rakhimov has since 2012 been on the US government’s sanctions’ list as a drug baron and member of the Brother’s Circle, a ‘council’ of leaders of several Eurasian criminal groups.  

Rakhimov left Uzbekistan in 2010 after, it was rumoured, he had clashed with the late Uzbek president Islam Karimov’s elder daughter Gulnara Karimova. In 2013 authorities charged Rakhimov with financial crimes and forgery. 

Rakhimov returned home just weeks after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016, after Karimov’s death. The charges against Rakhimov were dropped. 

Abduvaliev also appeared to be on good terms with Mirziyoyev’s government, at the beginning. In a photo widely shared weeks before the December 2016 presidential election, he was shown wearing a T-shirt with Mirziyoyev’s picture on it and the words “My President”. 

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