Introduction

Abstract

A journey through the city of Osh in South Kyrgyzstan and the nearby town of Jalalabad is full of surprises. The traveller would first notice palatial houses at the bottom of Mount Suleyman, a sight no-one would expect in a poverty-stricken country. Most of the locals would shy away from questioning and say that these houses were built with money sent by Gastarbaitery (migrant workers in Russia). But a few more talkative individuals would describe the owners of the houses as local policemen, judges, prosecutors and members of legislative bodies. Importantly, one of the very few fully functioning, income-generating activities is the burgeoning regional drugs trade, the source of most of the cash injected into the underdeveloped local economy. In Jalalabad, one can enjoy the view of an impressive complex of houses formerly belong­ing to President Kurmanbek Bakiev, who was toppled in April 2010. Numerous reports and observers have associated him and members of his family with corruption and links to organized crime, notably drug-smuggling. One of the strangest sites is the bridge at the outskirts of Jalalabad, which provides evidence of the investment of drug money in regional infrastructure. It was built by the late Bayman Erkinbaev, Member of the Kyrgyz Parliament, drug trafficker from the south of the country, and a key player in the Tulip Revolution of 2005. This pedes?trian bridge was apparently built to meet the needs of the local popu?lation, unlike another bridge built by Erkinbaev in the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border town of Pulgon, which was likely more rationally intended to facilitate trade with the retail market he owned nearby.