Kazakh police official wanted in theft from Mittal Steel

Moscow, Jan 3 (UNI) The Kazakh Interior Ministry has put on ''wanted'' list Nurlan Kalimov, former head of the Karaganda regional police unit for resisting organized crime and is allegedly involved in large-scale theft from Mittal Steel Temirtau plant.

Kalimov is suspected of covering up criminal groups who engaged in large-scale theft from Mittal Steel Temirtau in Karaganda region, Interfax news agency said quoting a report by the investigation team.

The investigators said Kalimov ''patronized and assisted criminal groups'' for big sums of money that easily stole huge quantities of metal from the steel mill.

The report said that shortly before the investigators started suspecting Kalimov, he resigned and retired.

Earlier reports said in April 2006 the police stopped two Kamaz trucks on the Karaganda-Temirtau highway loaded with 60 tonnes of metal stolen from Mittal Steel Temirtau.

The drivers produced fabricated documents for the cargo. The metal was supposed to be illegally transported to Uzbekistan.

In the process of investigating the crime, the police established that an organized criminal group had operated in the territory of the steel works and stolen big quantities of metal unhindered.

The international Mittal Steel Company bought Kazakhstan's biggest steel mill in Temirtau in mid-1990s and renamed it Mittal Steel Temirtau.

UNI