The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor"s Office of Georgia, 270 people have been arrested on charges of drug crimes, including 27 drug dealers. The relevant statement made today the Director of the Central Criminal Police Department, Teimuraz Kupatadze.

“The fight against drug crime and the implementation of legal measures against drug dealers remains one of the top priorities for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Since the beginning of the current year, as a result of intensive operational measures and investigative actions carried out throughout the country by the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor"s Office of Georgia, 270 people have been arrested on charges of drug crimes, including 27 drug dealers.

I want to clarify, that among the arrested are drug dealers who were selling narcotics using the traditional hand-to-hand dealing method. Additionally, so-called drug placers are arrested who used the method of placing drugs in different locations. Among the arrested are also persons illegally importing drugs across the border and smuggling various types of narcotics into the country.

Citizens of Georgia, as well as those of Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Jordan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Iraq and the Kingdom of Netherlands are arrested.

Based on the judge"s ruling, police performed control purchases of drugs from persons arrested on charges of illegal possession of drugs several times and secretly audio-video recorded the aforementioned purchases.

As a result of operational measures and investigative actions carried out throughout the country, a large and especially large amount of narcotic and psychotropic substances were seized as evidence from the locations specified by the defendants, as well as during the personal search of the detainees, their cars and homes:

“Heroin”, “Cocaine”, “Alpha PVP”, “Subotex”, “Suboxin”,
“Methadone”, “MDMA”, “LSD”, “Mephedrone”, “Amphetamine”, “Ecstasy”,
“Hashish” and the narcotic plant hemp.

Police also seized funds allegedly obtained from the sale of drugs as evidence from the defendants.

The investigation is being conducted according to the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

The crimes envision up to 20 years or life imprisonment.

I would also like to make a small remark regarding the stories recently published in the media and questions that have arisen in society regarding the drug situation in the country.

Narcotic substances enter the country mainly by land and air, as well as through mail. In response to these challenges, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the Customs Department of the Revenue Service, implements complex measures 24 hours a day. An inter-agency group consisting of representatives of various agencies has been created and monitoring of risky shipments is carried out in a coordinated manner on a daily basis, as a result of which the facts of the importation of narcotic substances at the borders of Georgia are revealed.

In addition to the mentioned, the Ministry of Internal Affairs actively cooperates with foreign colleagues, exchanging information on a regular basis, in order to reduce the facts of drug trafficking as much as possible.

In today"s reality, along with technological development, drug dealing has moved to the Internet space. Communication with drug users takes place through the Internet without physical contact. Narcotics sold by the mentioned method are mainly synthetic drugs causing fatal consequences in people. In most cases, drug dealers involve young people in drug dealing schemes; they advertise vacancies Internet and by various methods offering solid payment.

I would like to outline that the above-mentioned activity is a serious crime, it does not imply only placing drugs in different locations, but represents drug realization, which envisions severe legal punishment and hundreds of people have been brought to criminal justice for similar crimes.

At the same time, within the framework of the complex investigation, the search and confiscation of real estate and cash deposited on various bank accounts obtained illegally as a result of drug trafficking is being carried out on a regular basis.

I would like to emphasize that we identify online stores in the darknet and various Telegram channels regularly, processing the received information, conducting control purchases as well as various operational and investigative measures. Herewith, within the limits of technological capabilities, the mentioned Telegram channels and other online stores are blocked and canceled.

It should be noted that measures and special activities against the drug dealers involved in such schemes take a particular period of time to find solid evidence, to technologically process a large amount of data, to appoint and conduct examinations, so that persons responsible for such crimes could be brought to justice”, - said Teimuraz Kupatadze.