The key facts

  • Two men detained in Yangiyul for selling boilers past their service life at $380 each with fake certificates
  • One suspect was found to have another 500 illegally stored appliances
  • A case has been opened under Part 2 of Article 276-11 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan; 18 deaths from illegally sold boilers were previously reported

Detention in Yangiyul

Officers of the Interior Ministry's Operational-Investigative Activity Department, together with a department under the Prosecutor General's Office, have halted the illegal sale of 500 heating appliances unfit for use, UzNews.uz reports. The operation took place in Yangiyul, Tashkent region, where two men were detained: an employee of a gas supply organization and an entrepreneur previously convicted of tax evasion.

The sales scheme and the seized batch

According to the outlet, the men conspired and organized the sale of foreign-made heating boilers with an expired service life — unfit for use and failing to meet safety requirements. The equipment was sold with forged documents and certificates at $380 per unit. The detention took place during the sale of 120 boilers worth $45,000. During a search of one suspect's home, law enforcement officers found another 500 heating appliances of various brands, imported from abroad and illegally stored for subsequent sale.

Criminal case and context

A criminal case has been opened under subparagraphs 'a, b' of Part 2 of Article 276-11 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan (production, storage, transportation for sale, or sale of goods that fail to meet safety requirements), and an investigation is underway. Citizens are urged to buy heating boilers only from official stores with certificates of conformity and warranty documents, and to entrust installation and maintenance to qualified specialists. The scale of the problem is underscored by an earlier report from the same outlet: due to illegally sold heating boilers in Uzbekistan, 18 people died — gas boilers written off in Germany were imported into the country and sold as new. The new detention shows that the scheme of reselling used equipment as new with fake certificates continues to recur, and in this case the batch was seized before it could be sold.