Woman carrying hashish hidden inside doll detained in Tashkent

In the Bektemir district of Tashkent, a woman was detained with hashish hidden inside a children's toy, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan reported.

The detention took place during a raid by officers of the Department for Combating Cybercrime of the Tashkent Regional Main Department of Internal Affairs and the Nurafshon Department of Internal Affairs.

Acting on a tip-off from the internet, operatives stopped a Nexia 3 and searched the belongings of a 56-year-old woman.

In one of the bags was a doll whose weight struck the law enforcement officers as suspicious. When the toy was opened, eight packages of dark brown hashish with a pungent smell were found inside its head. The weight of each package ranged from 100 to 150 grams.

According to the Tashkent Regional Main Department of Internal Affairs, the woman was transporting the narcotic substances from the Fergana region to Tashkent for sale.

In a video published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the woman stated that an acquaintance had promised to pay her $200 for delivering the packages.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that a criminal case has been initiated under Part 6 of Article 273 (Illicit manufacturing, processing, acquisition, storage, and other actions with narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or their analogues for the purpose of sale, as well as their illicit sale, committed on a large scale, or by an organized group, or in its interests using telecommunications networks or the internet) of the Criminal Code. The sanction of the article provides for 15 to 20 years of imprisonment.

In February 2025, a large batch of drugs was intercepted at the Ayritom checkpoint in Surkhandarya — 612 kg of hashish worth over $16.5 million, which they attempted to smuggle into Uzbekistan inside broom handles.