Embassy of the United States

Embassy News

Ambassador Announces Counter-Narcotics Initiative

From left to right: Ambassor John Ordway, Austrian Ambassador Ursula Fahringer, Major General Baurzhan Yelubayev, Head of the Committee for National Security’s Military Institute, U.S. Embassy, May 6, 2008.

On May 6,  U.S. Ambassador John Ordway, together with Austrian Ambassador Ursula Fahringer, Major General Baurzhan Yelubayev, Head of the Committee for National Security’s Military Institute; Police Colonel Nygmedzhan Saparov, Deputy Chairman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Committee on Combating Drugs; and Josef Schuetzenhofer, Head of the Austrian Ministry of Interior’s Canine Center, announced the results of the counter-narcotics training course and the future of joint cooperation program in the canine area. 
The U.S. Embassy’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) Section purchased three dogs and sponsored the attendance of three Kazakhstani officers at a two-month counter-narcotics training at the Canine Training Center in Bad Kreuzen, Austria from February 25 through April 30. The goal of the course was to introduce the Kazakhstani officials to Austrian methods of training dogs to search for narcotics, which minimizes stress on the dogs. 
The U.S. Embassy plans to purchase seven additional dogs for the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Committee on Combating Drugs and to continue to sponsor trainings and exchange programs with Josef Schuetzenhofer and other international experts. 
Kazakhstani participants at the Canine Center in Bad Kreuzen were Major Nurdilla Aikozov, Captain Konstantin Ok, and Captain Bakhtiyar Akhmetzhanov, who are canine trainers at the Military Institute of the Committee for National Security, the Border Guard Service of the Committee for National Security, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Committee on Combating Drugs.      View photogallery