Briefing of Director of Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, Mr. Vladimer Bortsvadze and Police Attache of the French Republic accredited in Georgia, Mr. Bruno Balduc
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, with the aim to effectively combat international organized crime, activly continues cooperation with law enforcement agencies of the EU member states, through Interpol and Europol, as well as through police attaches deployed to European countries.
Georgian law enforcers have a permanent contact with European colleagues on the issues related to preparation and implementation of operations, delivery of information.
As a result of mutual cooperation, with active and direct participation of Georgian law enforcers, a large-scale special operation "VORS 69-01" was conducted on December 10 in Lyon, France. 22 members of the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani organized criminal groups operating in France and Belgium were detained. 10 citizens of Georgia, including two "thieves- in- law” are among the detainees.
As a result of the special operation, Georgian thieves-in-law, Mindia Nizharadze born in 1971 and Revaz Seskuria born in 1973, together with the members of the organized criminal group, O. T. born in 1983, S. Ch. born in 1983, R. N. born in 1984, I. B. born in 1968, Z. O. born in 1983, M. L. born in 1974, M. T. born in 1983 and L.R. born in 1991, were detained.
According to the investigation, defendants selected the place in advance, obtained and processed the information on the apartments for committing theft. Defendants stole cars, prepared fake documents and sold the drugs.
During the search of the houses of the detainees, the items related to the offence were obtained as a physical evidence, including jewelry, firearms, expensive cars, large amount of money, devises for the manufacturing of fake documents, key devices of different types of locks. The drugs from the subotex and methadone group and 1500 packages of cigarettes obtained through smuggling were also seized as the physical evidence. According to the investigation, total damage amounted to more than 400,000 euros.
Detained Georgian citizens are charged for committing criminal offences under the Articles 311, 321, 324 and 450 of the Criminal Code of France, which provide criminalization of repeatedly committed theft, keeping and selling of stolen goods, money laundering and membership of criminal group by more than one person. The crime envisages up to 15 years of imprisonment.
It should be mentioned, that in order to plan the operation, reveal the crime, identify the members of above mentioned criminal group and their connections, special operation conducted in Lyon was preceded by several months’ operative-investigative actions conducted in France, Belgium and Georgia by Gendarmerie of France, Police of Belgium, and Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. Trilateral meetings were also held in Tbilisi and Paris.
More than 300 law enforcers from France, Belgium and Geogia participated in the operation. Special units and canine service were involved and a helicopter was used during the actions.
We would like to remind you that one of the main priorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia is the fight against organized crime. In this field, effective actions are being implemented by the agency both within and outside the country. Since January 2018, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia detained 14 thiefs-in-law, including detentions made through the cooperation with law enforcement bodies of European countries. In total, 190 persons are detained with the charges of membership of criminal underworld.
According to the statement of the French Police Attache to Georgia Mr. Bruno Balduc: “The Georgian and French Police agencies demonstrated the effectiveness of our bilateral cooperation.
With the support of EUROPOL, the investigators of the French Gendarmerie through cooperation with Georgian Central Criminal Police Department, conducted the special operation in France, during which 20 criminals from the South Caucasus were detained.
This operation is successful not only because of detention of perpetrators, but also that it illustrates the result of multi-month cooperation between the Georgian and French law enforcement agencies.
I would like to congratulate the Georgian Police, especially the Central Criminal Police Department for successful engagement and mobilization in fighting against organized crime.”
